The Crystal Hybrids
by Interspark
Summary: Between the level-headed, unstoppable Andrew, quirky and excitable Penny Universe, and innocent and adorable Amelia Allium, they are the Crystal Hybrids, the second generation of the Crystal Gems. But when the bloodthirsty Red Diamond sets her sights on the children, they're forced to take drastic action, and flee to a universe where things worked out very differently.
1. Prologue Part 1

In the heart of Homeworld, stood a dazzling skyscraper, resembling an enormous shard of blue crystal. It was a research hub which developed pioneering new weapons and technology. Despite rebellion being so rare, especially on Homeworld itself, the building was highly secure, due to the sensitivity and potential for destruction, much of the work done there, possessed.

Inside, lights flashed and sirens wailed. Platoons of Agates and Jaspers raced back and forth, looking high and low for the reported intruders who had triggered the alarm a few moments ago. Towards the top of the building, two Peridots stood at a control panel, tracking the interlopers. Although seemingly of similar builds, a keen observer would notice that one of the Peridots was barely half the size of the other, due to having been made in Era 2, a fact which she compensated for, with the use of limb enhancers.

"Intruders in Floor 17, Sector 9!" The Era 1 Peridot screeched, her words transmitting to the building's security, through an earpiece she was wearing. "Wait! Floor 5, Sector 22! NO! Floor 62, Sector 12! Floor..." She squinted and read the information on her display. "'I'm a dumb clod who...' UGH! We're being hacked!"

"I thought you'd never figure it out..." The Era 2 Peridot smirked.

Her coworker turned to her for an explanation, surprised to be looking directly down her hand-mounted laser cannon. With a flash of light, the Era 1 Peridot's body was blasted away by laser fire, and her gem clattered to the floor. The other Peridot shifted over to the centre of the console.

"Intruders have split up!" She instructed the building's security, through her own earpiece. "One is heading to the roof, the other to the ground floor exit. All troops converge! Do not let them leave!" A small panel was projected from Peridot's hand, and she made some adjustments on it, with the use of her freely-floating fingers, altering the frequency of her earpiece. "Okay guys, I've taken the control room and I'm downloading the weapon schematics. I'm distracting the guards, but we need to get out of here _now_! Rose, how are we doing on that?"

Several floors down, the infamous Rose Quartz stood in a room, with a dozen Gems, of various cuts, all recently relieved of their physical forms, and suspended in pink bubbles. Rose was at a console of her own, scrolling through a listing of various starships. Before long, she found the fastest one, which could fit Rose's team, a sleek, aerodynamic vessel called the Starbolt. Rose swiped the display over to the side of the console, where she retrieved a small, white crystal.

"I've got the ship's access codes." Rose replied to Peridot. "Everyone get to the landing bay, and we'll get out of here."

Rose and Peridot left their respective stations and raced through the facility, quickly but carefully. It seemed as though Peridot's decoy had worked perfectly, as neither ran into any trouble, until they reunited, a short distance away from the loading bay.

"The weapon?" Rose asked Peridot, as soon as they saw each other, wasting no time on pleasantries.

Peridot summoned one of her screens, displaying the downloaded data. "Got it. Now we just need to wait for..."

"Rose... Quartz..." A sneering voice interrupted.

From a corner, between Rose and Peridot, and the landing bay, a green Gem strolled into view. She had upwards spiking, dark green hair, pointed shoulder pads, and a unibrow-like yellow, zigzagging beam above her eyes. Her rectangular faceted gem took residence on her forehead, like Peridot. Behind her, two Jaspers and two Agates stood in formation, swords and spears in hand, and anxious expressions on their faces, unlike their smug-looking commander.

"Emerald." Rose greeted. "You're looking well."

"You are a special kind of ridiculous, Rose." Emerald sneered. "White Diamond finally agrees to the peace treaty with earth, and what do you do? Break into a Homeworld facility! You're really making this too easy..."

Peridot winced fearfully, and braced her hands' weapons. Rose stood perfectly still, without even summoning her shield. Emerald seemed temporarily off-put by Rose's lack of concern, but she quickly regained her composure.

"B... but wait everyone!" Emerald said, in a sarcastic voice, to her backup. "I don't know if we can take on the mighty Rose Quartz with just us! Except... I have these!"

Emerald clenched her fists and a device appeared in each hand, resembling a green, metal stick, which branched into two, lightning bolt-shaped points, with crackling, green electricity dancing between them. Peridot yelped in fear and alarm upon the sight of them.

"Ever seen an Era 2 destabiliser before, Rose?" Emerald sneered. "A single touch of this and you're in a bubble, heading straight to Red Diamond. I bet not even your famous shield could withstand it."

"Maybe not..." Rose smiled. "But _he_ can." She nodded to the space behind Emerald.

Emerald winced, unwilling to turn her back on her opponent, despite knowing, on some level, that it wasn't a trick. Sure enough, behind Emerald, a pair of thin, boney hands grabbed the scalps of both of her Jasper guards, and united them with such force, that their forms disrupted instantly. The Agates span around, in response to the noise, only to see the newcomer thrust both arms at them. From his hands, two projectiles flew, too fast to track, but leaving behind trails of smoke, and two more destabilised gems.

Emerald finally looked away from Rose and, with a loud, battle cry, charged at her new adversary, thrusting her weapons at him. Emerald's attacker seized the destabilizers by the shafts, causing green lines to zigzag up his arms, and him to wince painfully, before forcing them around, in Emerald's hands, and plunging them into her abdomen.

"Excellent work, Andrew." Rose smiled, as Emerald's form exploded, and her gem fell to the floor.

"Took you long enough." Peridot rolled her eyes.

Andrew closely resembled an 18-year-old human. He was tall and skinny, albeit slightly muscular, had lightly tanned skin, and sleek, black hair, with purple tips, combed over one of his eyes. He wore a shirt with sleeves torn at the shoulders, and baggy jeans. Metallic rings decorated the top of his ears, and the side of his lower lip. Despite seeming to be a human, Andrew possessed a pair of red gemstones, one with a triangular facet, in the palm of his right hand, and one with a square facet, in his left.

"You're welcome." He sarcastically replied to Peridot.

"Come on, let's go." Rose urged, leading her two allies down the newly vacated corridor, and towards the landing bay at the other end.

Minutes later, a single ship flew from the side of the tower, and, before anyone on the ground could question its authority to leave the building, while it was on lockdown, it blinked away into the sky, vanishing in a split second.

-x-x-x-

Despite its more linear exterior, the Starbolt had a spacious, circular interior. Peridot had set the ship on autopilot, to fly to earth, before joining Andrew and Rose in the centre.

"I'm afraid... it's as we feared." Peridot said, sadly, while she scrolled through the data on her screens.

"So, the weapon... it's..." Rose began, fearful to complete her sentence.

"Well, they've no way of testing it, of course, but yes, theoretically, this weapon will separate all Gems on earth, from organic life..." Peridot sighed.

Andrew looked at the palms of his hands and winced. "So that means... we'll..."

"Best case scenario... your moms will come back... but either way... You, Penny and Amelia will... will..." Peridot visibly fought back tears as they welled in the corner of her eyes.

Andrew gritted his teeth and cried out angrily as his anger overcame him. "Red Diamond can't do that! White Diamond agreed! She said to her, specifically, that..."

"… that Gems on earth are to be left alone..." Peridot finished. "Not Gem hybrids. If anything, by... erm... doing what she's doing... she's enforcing White's order by bringing the original Crystal Gems back."

"So, we go back!" Andrew suggested. "We destroy the weapon ourselves!"

"A suicide mission." Peridot reluctantly concluded. "The hub was one thing, but the weapon is already aboard Red Diamond's ship, en route to earth. The chances of the three of us sneaking aboard and destroying it are next to nothing!"

"So?" Andrew demanded. "When has that ever stopped us before? Rose, you've told me so many stories of the Crystal Gems' heroism, what would earth be like, if you'd let unfavorable odds discourage you!?"

"This is different, Andrew..." Rose said, her voice carrying a rare hint of anger. "The stakes are much higher here. If we lose this fight, then we won't just lose our own lives, but your sisters too!"

Andrew looked like he wanted to argue some more, but didn't, knowing that Rose was right. "So, what _do_ we do?" He asked, quietly.

"I assume you were successful in your mission, back there?" Peridot asked.

Andrew pulled a small, metal and glass container from his pocket, with a tiny, red shard floating inside it.

"Good... then the first thing we do, is call Penny." Peridot said.


	2. Prologue Part 2

On the outskirts of Beach City, cradled in the hands of an enormous, six-armed statue, was a modestly-sized beach house. Much of the floorspace was divided into a spacious living room, a small kitchen, and the stony threshold of the Crystal Gems' temple base, with its door, and warp pad. Perpendicular to the temple, were the door to the bathroom and, on the other side, two doors, each leading to a bedroom. On a large, white corner sofa, Penny Universe sat, nervously twiddling her thumbs.

Like her older brother, Penny also resembled a human. She was thirteen years old, with pale skin, and silvery hair, which hung around her shoulders. People who were in the know, were usually quicker to guess her species than that of her siblings, since her singular gem, the large, round gem of a Pearl, sat visibly, in the middle of her forehead.

Corresponding with the late hour, Penny was in her nightdress. She had hoped Andrew and the others would be back before it got too late, but the clock on Penny's phone read 11:42PM, and she was too concerned to go to bed.

Penny jumped in response to a sharp buzzing, coming from a large, white diamond on the coffee table. She frantically grabbed it, and twisted the top half ninety degrees. The diamond floated into the air, and assumed the form of a large screen, through which she could see Peridot piloting a ship. Andrew and Rose stood behind her.

"Andrew!" Penny cried in relief. "Are you guys okay?"

"Nice to see you too, Penny..." Peridot retorted, rolling her eyes.

Andrew pushed Peridot aside slightly, to enter the shot. "No time for sarcasm, Penny, where's Amelia?"

"I... got her to go to bed..." Penny replied, somewhat taken aback by the seriousness in Andrew's voice.

"Wake her up, and pack." Andrew ordered. "We need to get the two of you off-planet immediately. We'll arrive in five minutes."

"Wh... what?" Penny asked, startled and somewhat alarmed. "But what about our..."

"Just do it, Penny! Hurry!" Andrew emphasised. "Five minutes!"

Andrew ended the call, to discourage Penny from stalling further. A chill ran up Penny's spine, as she worried what could be so bad. Respecting her brother's order, though, Penny shot to her feet and ran to the middle of the room. With a sparkle of light from her gem, a hologram, perfectly resembling Penny, came into life. The two Penny's shared a nod, and ran in opposite directions. While Penny ran towards hers and Amelia's room, the hologram retrieved a large suitcase from a cupboard, before running after her.

Penny and Amelia's bedroom wasn't as large as most bedrooms, shared by two children. It featured a set of bunk beds, a small cupboard, and a desk. While Holo-Penny emptied the contents of the cupboard into the suitcase, Penny climbed the ladder to the top bunk, and gently shook her sister's shoulder.

The youngest Crystal Gem was just six years old. She was short for her age, and somewhat pudgy. Her plentiful hair was strawberry blonde and bunched up around her shoulders, she had a faint row of freckles beneath her eyes, and her purple gemstone sat in the middle of her chest, beneath her pyjama top.

"Uhhh... Penny? Is it morning?" Amelia yawned.

"Not quite, but we need to go, come on..." Penny said, gently.

Penny coaxed Amelia towards the ladder, and collected her in her arms when she was half-way down it. Penny carried her half-asleep sister into the living room, while Holo-Penny followed, with the suitcase in hand. She stood by the window, watching the moonlit beach outside, and tapping her foot, impatiently.

"What's happening, Penny?" Amelia murmured, her eyes flittering open.

"I'm not sure, Amy, Andrew and the others finished their mission fine, just like I said, and now they need to see us, for some reason.

"Oh..." Amelia replied, sharing some of her sister's confusion and concern.

Amelia slowly grew more awake, but remained happy to stay in her sister's arms. After what felt like days, but, true to Andrew's word, was just a few minutes, the beach lit up with the glow of landing lights and thruster jets, and the ship landed gently on the sand. Remembering her brother's urgency, Penny raced outside as soon as the ship's jets died down, with her hologram following behind her. They ran up the ship's loading ramp, and inside, and immediate after they did, the ramp ascended, and the ship returned to the sky.

Penny joined the others in the cockpit, where she put Amelia down, and Holo-Penny dropped the suitcase, and exploded with a burst of light. Through the ship's windows, Penny and Amelia saw the distant lights of Empire City and the snaking street lights, get further and further away.

"So, what's all this about?" Penny demanded. "What happened on your mission?"

"Well... as suspected..." Peridot began. Two of her fingers circled each other in front of her, awkwardly. "Red Diamond is planning a retaliation against... well..."

"Me." Andrew abruptly finished.

A few weeks ago, agents of Red Diamond had unknowingly abducted Andrew, believing him to be a human with an unusually high energy output. They took him to Red Diamond's insidious arena, on a Gem-controlled world, which pitted exotic aliens against one another, for important Gems' entertainment. Andrew had held back for as long as he could, but eventually, was forced to go all out, giving Homeworld its first look at a Gem/human hybrid. Andrew had then escaped the arena, and then inadvertently destroyed most of the building that housed it, with the ship he stole, during his escape. Since then, the Crystal Gems had been worried about Red Diamond's retaliation, hence their mission to Homeworld.

"It's me she wants." Andrew said, solemnly. "If I just..."

"Andrew, don't be melodramatic!" Penny cut him off, angrily. "You're not turning yourself in! What's this about a retaliation?" She asked Peridot and Rose.

"Well, it's..." Peridot began, but her words quickly gave way to a terrified whine as she looked out of the ship's windows and her eyes widened.

Everyone spun around to see what had alarmed her so much, and shared in her reaction. A colossal ship, blood red, and in the shape of a left arm had entered earth's orbit. Its fingers were tensed, as though crushing something invisible. From the palm of its hand, a sphere of red light expanded, crackling menacingly, before launching at the planet's surface. As soon as it hit, the ball expanded, like ripples on a pond, sending a wave of red across the surface of the world.

"NOOO!" Penny screamed, running over to the window and pressing her hands on the glass.

"What's happening!?" Amelia fearfully demanded.

Andrew quickly ran over and held his sisters' shoulders, reassuringly. "Penny, Amelia! It's okay, everyone down there is fine!"

Penny turned around, tears already running down her face. "Wh... what?"

"It's me Red Diamond is angry at, that pulse was only harmful to Gem hybrids, like us!" Andrew quickly explained, realising how their hasty evacuation could have been misleading.

"The energy field is stabilising..." Peridot said, after returning to the ship's controls, once the red filter over the planet had faded away. "Everyone down there is A-Okay... In fact, the pulse wasn't even visible from the planet's surface... NASA are freaking out, but no change there..."

"But... when you say it's stabilising..." Penny asked, worriedly, casting a look at the suitcase full of belongings she had been instructed to bring.

Rose sighed. "The three of you... can never go back to earth."

"What!?" Penny snapped. "No, there has to be a way!"

"We don't have the equipment or the knowhow to undo this..." Peridot admitted. "It would be like removing a single element from your planet's atmosphere."

"But... where are we going to live?" Amelia asked, tearfully.

Frowning, Andrew picked up his youngest sister, and held her, comfortingly.

"Well... that's up to the three of you." Rose said. "You could try to find a new planet to live on..." Clearly that was an implausible plan, and had been suggested first, to sway favour to the alternative. "Or there's this..." She pulled the crystal Andrew had stolen, from the folds of her dress.

"What is that?" Andrew asked. He wished he had known sooner, but stealing it had been a snap decision by Peridot, and she said she would explain when they were all together.

"That... is the Eternity Shard." Peridot said, in her 'explaining stuff' voice. "Not long before my own defection from Homeworld, top scientists were experimenting in the potential of..." She paused dramatically, "… alternate universes!"

An appropriate hushed silence followed, which was broken by Andrew. "Seriously?"

"That thing can take us to alternate worlds?" Penny asked, in disbelief.

Peridots fingers pointed upwards, to signify Penny should calm down. "It's not as exciting as it sounds, in fact, it's utterly useless to Homeworld."

"Why?" Amelia asked.

"Two reasons. Firstly, it burns out after one use. Secondly, traversing universes isn't remotely like it is on earth television." Peridot explained. "With infinite realities, it's infinitely unlikely that you'll find one even remotely comparable to your own! I'm talking worlds where time changes direction every six seconds, worlds where gravity turns you inside out, worlds where the letter 'e' can destroy the universe..."

"Then why would we use it?" Penny asked, angrily. "It sounds like you're saying it's infinitely likely that it'll kill us instantly!"

Amelia whined nervously. "I wanna stay in this universe!"

"It won't be like that for you." Rose promised, in a reassuring voice.

"Why not?" Amelia asked.

"Because we have Andrew." Rose looked the oldest hybrid in the eye. "With your power, you can predict the safest, most familiar universe to travel to."

Andrew cringed. "Rose, I can predict the outcome of a coin toss with 100% accuracy, hell, even the roll of a dice, but not if that dice has INFINITY SIDES!"

"It's the same premise, Andrew." Rose promised. "You'll be choosing from a finite number of universes, relative to how long you take to activate it."

"Well... as long as we're together?" Penny proposed a good spin on the plan.

Peridot and Rose shared a look. "The... three of you will be together." She corrected remorsefully. "If Peridot and I don't stay here, there's nothing to stop the Diamonds from resuming earth's colony."

"We'll... have to say goodbye?" Penny practically whispered.

The group debated the issue for hours, until the sunrise could be seen approaching America through the ship's windows. Rose and Garnet proposed that there could be other Gems, exactly like them, in their new universe, while the children feared for the happiness of their seniors. Fortunately, there was no real family on earth, for the hybrids to sever ties with. One of the biggest factors was that Red Diamond would constantly endanger the hybrids, wherever they were. Andrew made another attempt to turn himself in, which Penny rejected even faster than the last. Finally, a decision was made, and the five Crystal Gems drew together in the centre of the ship, for a farewell hug.

"You all look after each other, okay?" Rose said, tearfully.

Peridot held up the Eternity Shard and input a short line of data. "Programming the 3-Dimensional co-ordinates is simple. If you just find a universe with a corresponding earth, this'll put you in the middle of Beach City." She said, handing the Shard to Andrew. She lingered for a few seconds, before letting go, and threw her arms around Andrew once more. "Now get out of here! Before I hug you and don't let go!" She demanded, angrily, tears rolling down her face.

Andrew remained holding Amelia, while Penny held his other arm, with which he held the Eternity Shard. He activated it like any other Gem device, and he could feel the power resonating within it. Andrew's heart pounded as he waited for his powers to kick in, to tell him that the moment had arrived. Seconds ticked by agonisingly, until, instinctively, Andrew released the energy from the shard, and, with a flash of light, the hybrid Gems were gone.


	3. New Kids in Town

With another crackle of light, Andrew, Penny and Amelia appeared on the Beach City boardwalk. The sun shone brightly, despite still being fairly low in the sky, and the waves crashed noisily against the beach. In the distance, the sounds of Funland and its accompanying arcade could be heard. Fortunately, the boardwalk was fairly quiet, and nobody witnessed the hybrids' arrival. A small number of people span around, in response to the noise, but soon dismissed them.

"Well, it looks like home..." Penny said, looking around. She felt the gem on her forehead. "And no killer energy field. So that's a plus."

Andrew was still holding Amelia in one arm. With his other hand, he picked up Penny's suitcase and started walking down the boardwalk. "Come on." He said to Penny, in a serious voice.

"Somewhere we need to be?" Penny asked.

"Yeah, a place where you two can get changed." Andrew replied. "We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

Penny looked down at her nightdress. Maybe she was a bit old to be in her pyjamas, in public, but she was still hesitant to agree with Andrew's statement.

"Why not?" She asked.

"You always wanted to come on missions, right?" Andrew reminded Penny. "Well think of this as your first one. And on a mission, we do recon, before we make a move."

Penny snorted in disbelief. "Rose and Peridot did recon?" Even without being an enormous woman and a cyborg of inhuman colours, the two Gems' attitudes made the idea of them being stealthy, utterly ridiculous.

"No, I did recon on earth missions, because I look human." Andrew said. "And so do the two of you."

Satisfied, Penny didn't question further, and followed Andrew, until they arrived at a public restroom. Penny retrieved two sets of clothes from their suitcase, and took Amelia inside to change. When they emerged, they had both donned their iconic outfits. For Penny, it was a breezy, yellow sundress, with a black star in the middle, black shorts and white trainers, and for Amelia, it was a fluffy, purple sweater, and a pink skirt.

Andrew had delved through the suitcase while the girls changed, and had donned a pair of black, fingerless gloves, and when his sisters returned, he placed a white baseball cap on Penny's head, with an abrupt, "Here."

"Are we hiding our gems?" Penny asked, adjusting the hat slightly.

"Yup."

"Why?" Amelia asked. "Rose always said to be proud of who we were."

"Like I said, Amelia, recon." Andrew replied. "This world is similar to our own, but with specific, tangible differences, like on... like on TV..." Andrew sighed, as he remembered Peridot's analogy. "It's likely that this universe has Gems too... and until we know how the humans here respond to them, we need to blend in."

The hybrids continued their walk around town. It was uncanny how similar everything looked. Everyone they saw, they recognised from their own world, but Penny and Amelia followed Andrew's instruction, not to draw attention, by not greeting them. None of their friends approached them first, either, confirming, to their relief, that there was no Penny, Andrew or Amelia already here.

Fortunately, the money Andrew had in his pockets was indistinguishable from the currency used in their new reality, and as afternoon loomed, the siblings sat on a bench, near Beach Citywalk Fries, overlooking the ocean, each eating a portion of fries, and discussing potential plans. As they spoke, the sounds of a small group, deep in conversation, grew gradually louder. The children trailed off, in reaction to the voices, they were sure they had heard them before, but didn't realise where, before they turned to their source, and gaped in disbelief and alarm.

Coming down the boardwalk, were a trio of Gems. Andrew had only met two of them, and Penny, just one, but all three children had seen them every day, in their last universe, in the large, group photograph, hanging in a frame, over the door of their home. Each Gem had left a video for one of the children, expressing their fondness and well-wishing. They were the original Crystal Gems, and the hybrids' parents- Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl.

"Penny! Andrew! It's..." Amelia urgently, but quietly began, before the Gems entered their earshot.

Penny put her arms around Amelia. "We know, Amelia! But shush!"

"You're not normally so vague, Garnet." Pearl commented, worriedly, as the group walked past. "What did you say you saw?"

"Something..." Garnet dismissively replied. "Something different..."

"So different you can't even say what it is?" Amethyst said, with a grin.

The Gems came to a halt shortly after Beach Citywalk Fries, not far from where the hybrids were inadvertently staring at them. The children noticed that there was a human boy with the gems, who they didn't recognise. He was slightly shorter than Penny, with curly, black hair, and a red t-shirt with a star on it.

"Has this ever happened before?" He asked Garnet.

"Once." Garnet replied. "In the Sea Shrine."

"You mean that time a bunch of Stevens showed up and started fighting each other?" Amethyst asked.

"Hmm..." Garnet affirmed with a nod.

"Steven, if, at any point in the future, you find another Hourglass, do _not_ come back here and pull another stunt like that!" Pearl ordered Steven, as a preventative measure.

The group looked at Garnet, to see if it had worked. She adjusted her visor. "I can still sense it."

"Well, I don't think it's me then." Steven said. "I promised myself I wouldn't do that again, after last time."

Suddenly, Amethyst derailed the conversation. "Yo!" She called. The team looked at her, then followed her gaze towards the hybrids, who quickly averted their eyes. "Have I got something on my face, or what?"

"Hi there!" Steven called, in a much friendlier voice, running over. "Are you guys new in town? I'm Steven."

Penny and Amelia kept averting their eyes, as though hoping Steven would go away, but Andrew's casual facade was flawless.

"Hi there." He returned Steven's greeting, smiling warmly and shaking his hand. "I'm Andrew and these are my sisters, Penny and Amelia. And no, we've lived on the outskirts of town for a while, but we don't usually get out much."

"W... we're agoraphobes!" Penny quickly added, with somewhat less confidence.

"That's awful." Steven said, sympathetically.

"Steven, we should really keep looking for the anomaly." Pearl critisised.

"Oh okay..." He said, before turning back to the hybrids. "Well, it was nice to meet you, good luck conquering your fears!"

The Gems continued walking down the boardwalk. When they were out of earshot, Andrew turned to Penny and lifted an eyebrow, condescendingly. "Agoraphobes?"

Penny rolled her eyes. "Shut up..."

-x-x-x-

Later in the day, the children had made their way to the lighthouse above the temple. In their last reality, Andrew had been prone to mood swings and bursts of anger, when he was upset or distraught, and it was unanimously agreed, that it was most likely a symptom of being a fusion, unable to unfuse. When his emotions began to get out of hand, or when he was simply struggling with a problem in his life, the lighthouse was Andrew's favourite place to meditate, and collect his thoughts.

Andrew sat cross-legged, with his eyes closed, and his palms facing up, and with Amelia sitting in his lap. Through his gloves, the faint glow of his gems was visible. Not far away, Penny paced back and forth, along the cliff, anxiously.

"So, in this world, none of our moms ever had kids..." She recapped. "Also, there's no sign of Rose or Peridot, but there IS a seemingly human child, affiliated with the Gems... You don't think...?"

After she trailed off, Amelia answered. "He was really nice and friendly, just like Rose."

"There was kind of a resemblance..." Penny admitted. "But who would Rose have a kid with, in Beach City?" After pacing some more, Penny craned her neck over the cliff. "I can see the roof of the house from here. It's the same size ours used to be, before you and I started fighting, Andrew." She smiled.

After Penny's birth, she and Andrew had shared a small, mezzanine bedroom, above the living room, until sibling rivalry had set it, and they had begun squabbling constantly, while Rose attempted to mediate, and Amethyst childishly egged them on. Ultimately, Peridot had taken it upon herself to build an expansion to the house, so they might each have their own room.

Looking at the house, Penny had an idea. "If we never existed in this world, then our phone plans won't have either, but with the upgrades Period gave me, I should be able to access the house's wi-fi from here..." She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and quickly found the appropriate wi-fi. "I hope the password is still the same... Oh... it's unlocked. Nice."

"What are you gonna do?" Amelia asked.

"I'm gonna try and find this 'Steven' kid on Cheeper. If I try the surnames of the people in town, his Cheeper account will confirm who his dad is. Let's see... Steven... Pizza? Miller? Dewey? Barriga?"

"Maybe he's my brother?" Amelia suggested, hopefully.

Penny tried, 'Steven Allium' but shook her head. "No, sorry Amelia."

Andrew opened his eyes. "You know who he kind of looked like? With that nose, and hair, and those sandals?"

Penny thought for a moment, before her eyes widened in alarm, upon realisation. He looked kind of like Greg Universe, Penny's dad. Before Penny could find out, there was a sound, coming from the ocean, penetrating the sound of the waves. It was a monstrous, resonating roar, like that of a gigantic lion. The hybrids shared a look of alarm and surprise, before Andrew shot to his feet and the three looked towards the source.

Climbing out of the ocean, was what looked like some low-budget Godzilla knock-off, or an enormous, purple komodo dragon. It had no eyes, a wide mouth, full of vicious fangs, and a blue gem on the base of its neck.

"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?" Penny cried, looking towards Andrew.

Although her brother's eyes widened in alarm, he managed not to panic as much as Penny was. "It has a gem... maybe it's some kind of fusion, with more gems on its belly?" He suggested.

"It's not acting like a Gem..." Amelia countered.

The lizard stomped around the beach, occasionally growling and roaring, and flicking its long tongue around. Eventually, it began stomping along the beach.

"It's headed towards Beach City!" Penny shouted. "We have to stop it!"

Andrew clearly agreed. With a clenching of his fists, a pair of maroon and pink gauntlets appeared on his hands. "Penny, you stay here with Amelia. I'll handle this."

"Ohhh no!" Penny disagreed. "You've always had Rose and Peridot backing you up, and you're not going solo now!"

Before Andrew could argue, Penny picked up Amelia in one arm and leapt over the cliff, ignoring her brother's protests. While they fell, Penny held her hand above her head, and, with a gleam from her gem, something materialised, spinning in the palm of her hand, like a propeller. She drifted over the reptile, and nimbly landed a safe distance away, between it and Beach City, by taking hold of the thing above her hand, revealing it to be her signature weapon, a quarterstaff, with a spearhead at each end.

Penny gently put Amelia down on the sand. "Stay back." She told her, lovingly.

The monster flicked its tongue, in response to Penny's arrival, no doubt tasting the air, like a snake. It roared again, and began to stomp in her direction, but it had barely taken a few steps, when Andrew fell on top of it, foot first, like a missile, with such force, that a shockwave of sand flew across the beach, staggering Penny slightly. He backflipped towards his sisters, protectively.

"Don't ever do that again!" He angrily ordered Penny.

"Andrew, I appreciate your skill as a leader..." Penny coyly began, bracing her quarterstaff. "But you'll always be my know-it-all brother, I love to rebel against!"

The monster lunged again, this time attempting to swallow the hybrids. Andrew responded by grabbing each row of its chomping teeth and holding its mouth open, while bracing his feet against the sand, attempting to slow its advance. Although Andrew grunted in exertion, the creature's teeth didn't even scratch his gauntlets.

While Andrew preoccupied the monster, Penny leapt into the air above it. She braced her weapon in a throwing position and it glowed brightly, and as she reached the peak of her jump, she threw her quarterstaff like a javelin, looking as though she was throwing a laser bolt from her hand, clean into the creature's back, resulting in a violent explosion of white smoke.

When the smoke cleared, Penny was holding the creature's gem, and sealing it in a white bubble. Andrew and Amelia walked over to her, the former dispersing his gauntlets as he did.

"It _is_ one Gem..." Penny noted, in disbelief. "She couldn't have been shape-shifting... she was huge!"

"Something must have been wrong with her..." Andrew theorised, placing his hand between Penny's, and her bubble, taking it and examining the gem inside, closely.

"Uhhh, guys?" Amelia attracted her siblings' attention.

Penny and Andrew looked at Amelia, and then along the beach, in the direction in which she was looking, finding the Crystal Gems, and their human friend, all of them, including Garnet, staring in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Oh..." Andrew quietly remarked.


	4. Origin Stories

The two teams stood in the sand, staring silently at each other. The Gems were stunned, and the hybrids were nervous. Eventually, it was Andrew who took a few steps forwards, and broke the silence.

"We are the Crystal Hybrids." He announced, dramatically. "We're a team of Gem-Human hybrids who protect the earth... We're not here to fight..."

"Oh my gosh!" Steven announced, loudly, surprising everyone, slightly. "You guys are half Gems too? I thought I was the only one!"

Steven lifted up his shirt, confirming Penny's theory by revealing Rose's gem. Garnet walked past him, towards Andrew. She was a few inches taller than her alternate universe son, even without counting her hair, so stopped, short of making him crane his neck. With a flick of her fingers, she dispersed her visor. Andrew had only seen his mother's three eyes in a couple of photographs, it was somewhat unnerving.

"Your gauntlets..." She said, in a hushed voice.

The team had only gotten a brief look at Andrew, before Penny destroyed the monster, obscuring him with smoke, and only Garnet had been sharp enough to get a good look at Andrew's weapons.

Frowning anxiously, Andrew pulled his gloves off and showed the group, the palms of his hands. Penny and Amelia shared a look, before respectively removing her cap and lowering the neck of her sweater. The Crystal Gems' reaction to the hybrids' powers was nothing to the expressions they wore now. Pearl looked as though she could faint, regardless of it not being biologically able.

Almost a minute of excruciating silence passed, before Steven spoke up. "Does... anyone wanna come inside for some tea?"

There were some quiet mumblings of affirmation, and the two teams made their way to the beach house. Everyone's emotions were working overdrive, and the four hearts they had between them, were pounding furiously. Inside, Andrew, Penny and Amelia took a seat on the sofa, at the Gems' invitation. Andrew had barely begun their story, when Steven interrupted.

"YOU'RE FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE!?" He practically screamed, almost spilling boiling water on himself, as he prepared everyone's drinks.

No one had particular trouble believing the children's incredible-sounding story, since their gemstones were clearly the same ones possessed by the Crystal Gems. There were a handful of other possible explanations, but none that were any more plausible.

"In your universe, is that kind of technology readily available?" Penny asked Andrew, curiously.

"No... Homeworld scientists only came up with it a few years ago." Andrew answered.

"That means our own Homeworld could have developed such technology too..." Pearl said, worriedly.

"You don't need to worry..." Penny said, very briefly making eye contact with her mother, and blushing slightly. "Only Andrew can use it safely, thanks to his power."

"You mean future vision?" Steven asked, as he brought a drinks tray around. He gave Andrew a black coffee, Penny a cup of tea, with milk and two sugars, and Amelia a glass or orange juice, leaving another cup of tea, the same as Penny's, for himself. Then he gave the two teabags to Amethyst, who promptly swallowed them.

"Thanks." Andrew said, sipping his coffee. "And no, I don't have future vision, not like..." He cleared his throat, awkwardly. "Not like a Sapphire, anyway. I have the power of... luck. Amelia calls it my 'Andy Sense'." He smiled fondly.

The group looked at Amelia, who blushed embarrassedly, and buried her face in Penny's shoulder.

Andrew elaborated. "I can't see the future, but I can guess the best, out of two or more options, as far as the safety or benefit of myself and the people around me go. It's like future vision, but in my sub-conscious."

Sooo, hey..." Amethyst began, sounding like she was about to change the subject. "If you're all our kids, who are your dads?"

"Amethyst!" Pearl said, accusingly. "That's a very personal question!" Despite her reaction, it couldn't be clearer that Pearl was also very curious.

"Actually, Penny is the only one of us who had a dad." Andrew corrected. "For me, my universe's Garnet was my only parent, that's why I don't have a surname." He looked at his gems, solemnly.

"But, you're still half... I mean... a third human, right?" Steven asked, sitting on the sofa, a comfortable distance from Penny and Amelia.

"Well for a while, before I was born, Ruby and Sapphire had a string of polyamorous relationships with humans."

Pearl gasped, and Amethyst grinned excitedly. Ironically, Garnet didn't react at all, save for saying, "Please continue." When Andrew noticed the Gems' responses.

"There was never anyone who Ruby and Sapphire loved nearly as much as each other, of course, so none of them lasted very long, but it was immensely satisfying for them to share their love like that. One day, Garnet asked one of her partners to..." Andrew trailed off, and glanced cautiously at his youngest sister. "I mean, long story short, they made me. Beforehand, she told him he didn't have to stick around, so he didn't, and I was raised by Rose Quartz."

Garnet seemed to find the story surprisingly easy to believe. It was Steven who seemed the most confused. He stared at Andrew with a puzzled expression, before delicately asking, "But... if Garnet never loved anyone else... why did she give up her physical form for... you know?"

Far from seeming offended, as Steven had feared, Andrew smiled, "She told me in a video she left, that I was an expression of Ruby and Sapphire's love, just like she was."

Sensing that Andrew was finished, Penny turned to Amelia. "Do you want to tell them about your parents?" She asked, sweetly.

Amelia looked around, Steven and Pearl smiled encouragingly, Amethyst looked almost as nervous as Amelia, to know who she had had a child with. Eventually, Amelia obliged.

"My other mom was a really nice lady in town, called Vidalia." She said.

"Haha, whaaat!?" Amethyst laughed, loudly, with a broad grin, startling Amelia. "Vidalia and I got _busy_!?"

"Who's Vidalia?" Steven asked, surprised by Amethyst's reaction.

"You know..." Amethyst replied. "She's your best friend's mom."

"Connie?" Steven asked, confused. He wasn't sure what Doctor Maheswaran's first name was, but he doubted Amethyst was either.

"No... that little guy who doesn't talk." Amethyst corrected.

"Oooh, Onion."

"Man... I always wondered what would have happened if Vidalia and I never stopped hanging out. Turns out it's this cutie!"

Amelia smiled endearingly as Amethyst drew attention back to her.

"Wait, Gems can have kids with human women, too?" Steven subjected to the group.

"Well of course, Steven." Pearl immediately replied. "Your mother had to shapeshift for nine months to have the appropriate internal organs to gestate a human child. It would have been immensely more practical to simply impregnate a female human with her gem."

"Did... you say Vidalia has another kid in this universe, besides Sour Cream?" Andrew asked. "Who's raising him?"

"What are you talking about? She is." Amethyst said, confusedly. "Her and her guy, Yellowtail."

The hybrids immediately fell silent, Penny and Andrew looked to Amelia, who looked back in wide-eyed astonishment. Before the Gems could ask what had alarmed them so much, Andrew turned to Amethyst. "She's alive, here...?" He breathed.

Amethyst immediately shared the hybrid's reaction. "Oh man... your mom's...?" She began, quietly. "Well let's go see her, right now! You know she'd love to meet you!"

Penny rested a hand on Amelia's shoulder. "Amy, do you wanna meet your mom, here? Remember, she won't recognise you." She said, gently.

"Dude, don't even worry about that!" Amethyst said, encouragingly. "Vidalia's cool with Gem magic and stuff! I bet she'll let you call her 'mom' and everything!"

Amelia looked between her siblings and Amethyst, and nodded her head, silently.

"Alright then." Andrew said, climbing to his feet.

Amelia did the same, and they headed towards Amethyst, and the door. Penny remained seated.

"You know what? Why don't you and Amethyst take her?" She proposed to Andrew. "We don't want to overwhelm her. I'll just stay here, if it's alright with Steven."

"Sure!" Steven happily agreed. "There's still so much I wanna know about you guys!"

"Okay..." Andrew agreed, suspecting Penny of having ulterior motives, besides Vidalia's comfort. "See you later."

After Andrew, Amethyst and Amelia left the house, Garnet turned to Pearl. "Pearl, I need your help on an important mission." She said, bluntly. "It was nice to meet you Penny."

As Garnet and Pearl made their way towards the Warp Pad, Pearl could clearly be heard, saying, "You know, if you want to give them some space, you could just say."

After the chime of the Warp Pad faded, Penny sat cross-legged on the sofa, and turned to face Steven. "Hey Steven, I know you're curious, but I actually had some questions for you." She said.

Steven smiled embarrassedly. "Oh... I'm sorry for being too inquisitive. You're the one in an entirely new reality! You must have a million questions!"

"Well... Yeah..." Penny awkwardly began. "But really, I was just wondering about _your_ parents. I mean, Rose Quartz was your mom, right?"

"Oh yeah... she was still around where you're from, right?" Steven asked.

"Yeah..." Penny quickly answered, before Steven changed the subject to her. "But I was just wondering- Who's your dad?"

"Oh, my dad's Greg Universe. He must be around in your universe too, right?" Steven asked. "I bet he and my mom are still in love, but she didn't want... to... leave..."

Steven trailed off, as he noticed a mortified expression make its way down Penny's face, and her skin turn even paler than usual.

"Penny...? Are you okay?" Steven asked, worriedly.

Penny got up off the sofa and held her head in distress. "No, I'm not!" She cried. "I can't believe this! I travel to another _freaking_ universe, and it's just the same thing with a different Gem, with that guy!"

"Wh... what?" Steven remarked.

"What did he tell you? What was his excuse for leaving Rose?" Penny demanded.

Steven frowned, angrily. "Penny, I don't know what you're talking about, but the Greg in this universe is a really nice guy who loved my mom, and gave up everything to be with her!"

Penny seemed startled, but her anger wasn't subdued for long. "Steven, the Greg Universe where I'm from was a nice guy too, once, who came to Beach City and fell in love with a Gem, and it turned out, that a fat, billion-dollar music contract from his manager, was the only difference between that super nice guy, and the JERK WHO LEFT MY MOM!" She shouted angrily.

Before Steven could respond to the ground-breaking news Penny had dropped on him, Penny grabbed her hat from the sofa and stormed out of the door, slamming it behind her.

* * *

 **So yeah, I changed the canon a bit, since my Penny Universe story, if anyone's read that.**


	5. Family

"So, Andrew, what was the Amethyst like, where you're from?" Amethyst asked, as they approached Vidalia's house. "I mean, you must have been, like, twelve, when I checked out, right?"

"Yeah, you and her are pretty similar actually, Garnet too, from what I've heard. Pearl? Not so much." Andrew replied.

"Yeah, no kidding." Amethyst said. "Can't believe there's a version of Pearl who got a baby put inside her. Our Peal can't even handle eating."

"Really? That's surprising. Our Pearl loved to eat. She was on first name terms with every food vender in town."

"So, what about us?" Amethyst asked, pointing between herself and Andrew. "Were we buds, or what?"

"Yeah, we were." Andrew smiled, fondly. "We were actually a wrestling team for a while. I don't know if you do that here..."

Amethyst gave a delighted gasp. "Dude, I do! I mean, Steven's already my partner, but you and Penny should be a team! You kicked butt on the beach!"

Andrew was suddenly reminded of the anomalous Gem creature on the beach. He was about to ask Amethyst about it, when they arrived at Vidalia's house. Amethyst made to walk down her front garden path, but Andrew remained on the outside of the property, holding Amelia's hand.

"Hey Amethyst, you should go ahead and get Vidalia up to speed, before we come in." Andrew suggested.

Amethyst looked between Andrew and Amelia, and gave a look of understanding. She crouched down to the younger hybrid's eye-level. "Hey kid, don't worry, okay? I don't know if you got to know her... before... but your mom's the coolest chick in this whole town!"

Amethyst approached the door and knocked. After Vidalia answered, Andrew squeezed Amelia's hand-reassuringly, as Amethyst and Vidalia cried each other's names in excitement. After some hushed words in a serious tone, Amethyst went inside and closed the door behind her.

Andrew dropped to one knee. "Amelia, you still don't have to do this if you don't want to." He reassured his sister.

From the other side of Vidalia's door, came a muffled, "Seriously!?"

"I want to." Amelia consoled her brother. "I really want to know what my mom was like, even if it's not really her... and if she's not what I thought, I'll still have you and Penny, right?"

Andrew smiled and playfully tapped Amelia's chin with his fist. "You bet."

In their own world, Vidalia had suffered a fatal car crash, when Amelia was just two years old. Having been far too young to remember, all Amelia was left with, were stories of how cool and caring her mother was. Since Amelia had always lived with Rose and her Gem siblings, she had never grown that close to her half-brother, Sour Cream, and he had eventually moved to Empire City, to pursue his musical career.

Before long, the door opened again, and Vidalia stood in the doorway, with Amethyst standing behind her. Although she was smiling warmly, the shock from Amethyst's announcement still lingered on her face. She made her way down the path, and crouched on the balls of her feet.

"Hey kiddo..." She greeted, gently. "Amethyst's been telling me some... pretty wild things, but... I guess I'm your mom?" She laughed awkwardly.

Amelia stayed holding Andrew's hand. She was nervous of Vidalia's reaction. Did she not believe Amethyst? Did she not want to be Amelia's mom?

After a moment of silence, Vidalia held her arms out, with her palms facing inwards. "You... feeling one of these?" She offered.

After another moment of uncertainty, Amelia let go of Andrew's hand and ran gratefully into her mother's arms. Vidalia laughed endearingly and picked Amelia up. She turned to Andrew and held out her hand. "Hey, Andrew, right?"

Andrew shook her hand. "It's good to see you again, Vidalia."

"Good to see you, for the first time!" Vidalia laughed. "Well come on in, then, both of you."

Vidalia led Andrew and Amethyst inside, and to her living room, where Sour Cream was sitting on the sofa, nodding his head to the beat of a song he was listening to, through his headphones. Vidalia collapsed into the sofa next to him, still holding Amelia, and nudged his arm with her elbow.

"Hey, Sour Cream." She pulled his attention, after he lowered his headphones. "These kids just came from another universe with some crazy Gem stuff, and it turns out this cutie is your little sister!"

"Whaaat? No way!" Sour Cream remarked, in his usual, nasal, monotone drawl, making it difficult to tell if he believed his mother or not.

Seeing Amelia with her family, it was easy to believe they were related, even if the older Alliums had never met Amelia before. Amelia's strawberry blonde hair was much darker than that of the rest of her family, but the distinctive way it curved over her shoulders, was seldom seen, outside of hers and Vidalia's bloodline.

"Hi Sour Cream!" Amelia happily greeted her brother. "What are you listening to?"

"It's my own mix. You wanna listen?"

"Sure!"

"Hey, where's your brother?" Vidalia asked Sour Cream, while Amelia seemed to enjoy her brother's music. "He should..."

As if on cue, the vent behind the sofa slammed open, and the miniature form of Onion came flipping head over heels, onto the sofa, next to his mother, the jumper, tied around his neck, flailing like a cape. Amelia looked at her new brother in alarm, as he looked back at her, curiously. Amelia backed slowly into Sour Cream's lap, as though she and Onion were a pair of cats, deciding whether or not to hiss at each other.

"Oh!" Vidalia suddenly realised, fishing her phone out of her pocket. "Amethyst, get over here! Andrew, you mind getting a picture of me with the wife and kids?" She joked.

Amethyst laughed loudly, and leapt onto the sofa, next to onion. "Ha! You _wish_ I was your wife!"

Andrew couldn't help but laugh, at the very familiar dynamic between Amethyst and Vidalia, whether they were the good friends, they were here, or romantic partners, as they were in his universe. While he trained the phone on the family, and took the picture, he hoped Penny was settling into their new world, with as much ease.

-x-x-x-

Not far away, Penny leaned against the wall of the Big Doughnut, taking advantage of its free wi-fi. She was curious to know what had happened, in this universe, to make Greg stay in Beach City. The first thing she did, was search his name. Where Penny was from, a search of "Greg Universe" would glean page after page of information on his music career. Penny's dad's career had peaked in the early 2000's, but he still had a massive following, not to mention an enormous fortune. Here though, he didn't even have a Cheeper page. Penny had to scan through four pages of search results before finding anything relevant.

A long time ago, a young Greg had gone on tour, going from town to town playing shows, for few to no people. Penny vaguely remembered Rose telling her about that part. Greg had played a show in Beach City and only Rose and Pearl had showed up. Greg had given up on the tour after he formed a connection with Pearl, but his hiatus had only lasted until his manager returned, having arranged a huge contract with a leading music company who had fallen in love with Greg's music. It seemed, in this universe, Marty had never come back, and Greg had never left.

For a moment, it seemed like Penny had found the difference. This universe's Greg had no chance of making it big, so he had settled. The page Penny had found was an ancient, abandoned blog, in the dark recesses of the internet, about obscure musicians. As it turned out, the page had a video, that had survived the analogue age. Penny tapped on it, bracing herself for off-key wailing, but was astonished at what she heard. This Greg Universe was amazing, even better than her own. His dulcet tones, as he sang about shooting through space, shook Penny to the core, and she found herself tapping her foot, to the man she was trying her hardest to be angry at.

It didn't make sense. If this universe's Greg had the talent to be a superstar, then why wasn't he? Did Marty screw up? Did Greg injure his hand? Was there a problem with the music company? Penny sighed, as she remembered how fiercely the sweet and considerate Steven had defended his father. Maybe this universe's Greg was just a good guy, while hers wasn't...

Penny walked through town, beginning to feel guilty. She had been so angry when she found out Greg had ended up with Rose, that she had lashed out, at no one in particular, and ended up hurting Steven's feelings. A small part of her wanted to go back to the house and apologise, but a larger part wanted to be alone for a while. She had always told herself that anyone could be corrupted by the celebrity lifestyle. It was comforting to know that, even if she was related to Greg, he was no worse than anyone else, at his core. Now it turned out that might not be true.

Lost as she was, in her thoughts, Penny had wondered to the outskirts of town, where her foot sank into a wide crack in the pavement, and she fell forwards, her bare knees colliding painfully with the tarmac. Penny cried out in pain, and winced, after sitting with her legs in front of her, as she saw the bloody scrapes she had been left with. Her eyes watered up, both due to the pain, and the harsh reminder that she didn't have Rose to patch her up anymore.

Fortunately, Penny had planned for times when Rose wasn't around. She kept a first-aid kit with bandages and disinfectant in the storage dimension inside her gem, and was about to retrieve it, when an all too familiar voice called out to her. "Whoa, kid! Are you okay over there?"

Penny turned and stared, in response to the unbelievable irony of her situation. Greg Universe was running over to her, from the car wash she had been walking past. Due to his sun burn, and lack of a car, it seemed a safe bet that Greg was working at the wash. He was barely recognisable with his cheap clothes and bald spot.

"I... I'm fine..." Penny answered. She was glad she had donned her hat, upon leaving the house, she didn't want to have that conversation with Greg right now.

"Yeesh... Looks like you scraped yourself real bad there, kid." Greg noted. "Wait right there, I got a first-aid kit in the wash."

"Oh, no really, it's fine." Penny said, before Greg turned around.

"Hey, responsible adult here." Greg said, assertively, pointing his thumb at himself. "I'd feel awful if something like this happened to my kid, especially if it got infected."

"You would...?" Penny asked. This Greg was already surprising her. If she had hurt herself in front of her own Greg, she'd be lucky if he called her a cab.

"Well sure!" Greg shouted, already on his way back to the car wash. "What kind of parent wouldn't?" He added, as though he had read Penny's mind.

Penny chuckled to herself. What kind of parent, indeed? Before long, Greg returned, with a small, white box. From inside, he produced some clean rags, disinfectant, and bandages, and handed them to Penny.

"You want me to call your parents, or something?" Greg offered, while Penny gently cleaned her scratches.

"No... I just moved into town with my siblings." Penny replied, carefully. "We don't live far away."

"Oh, you're new in town? You should keep an eye out for my kid! He's about your age. He loves meeting new people."

Penny saw an opportunity to pry for answers. "You... probably moved here after having him, right? Beach City is such a nice place, after all." Penny was glad Andrew wasn't there to see her shoddy interrogation skills.

Luckily, Greg didn't think twice about Penny's unusual line of questioning. "Nah, I was just passing through, a real long time ago, when I met his mom, here. I was planning on being a rock star, ya know?" He laughed fondly. "But I found something way better."

"Better than fame and fortune...?" Penny tried to sound surprised.

Greg scoffed. "Music was never about that, for me. I just wanted to express myself and be understood, and I found all that and more, right here..."

Penny's mind reeled. It seemed like, celebrity career or no, this Greg was nothing like her own. Suddenly, she really wanted to get back to Steven. She quickly finished cleaning and bandaging her cuts, and stood up.

"Well, I'd better get going, thanks for your help." She said.

"No problem." Greg replied, as Penny briskly walked away. "You know where I am if you need a car washed!"

Penny walked, and then jogged across the boardwalk, quickly arriving at the steps down to the beach, where she ran around the cliff, towards the temple. Steven was standing on the decking, resting his head on the handrail in resignation, but shot upright, when Penny came into view. He ran down the steps and towards her.

"Penny!" He called, in relief.

"Steven!" Penny called back.

"I need to..." They both began, in unison, as they entered speaking distance, then laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of their heads.

"You go first." Penny quickly offered.

"Penny, I shouldn't have been so defensive!" Steven apologised. "You were talking about your Greg, not mine, and you're right, yours _does_ sound like a jerk! You couldn't have known he was different here."

"I didn't say I was talking about my dad, though!" Penny said, admitting her own fault. "I shouldn't have compared him to yours. Steven, I met your dad in town, and you're right! He is a nice guy... and I'd be mad if someone said mean things about him too..."

They both smiled awkwardly, glad that neither was angry at the other, anymore.

"You know..." Steven began. "I know, for you, your siblings are the people you grew up with... but it's kinda cool that we're siblings in the biological sense. I've never had a sister before."

Penny smiled approvingly, and held her arms out to Steven. "Siblings?" She offered.

Steven accepted her hug, warmly. "Siblings."


	6. Back to Work

At Steven's invitation, the Crystal Hybrids stayed with him, in his smaller-than-average house. Penny and Amelia slept on perpendicular sides of the corner sofa, at Andrew's insistence, while he slept on the floor, in a sleeping bag. Under questioning from the Gems, the children had described the expansions made to their own house, after Penny was born, and Pearl had immediately began developing plans to add similar expansions to their new home.

Over the following days, word had spread around town, of the hybrids' arrival, and how they had come from another universe, and consequentially, already knew everyone in Beach City. In an effort to settle in, the hybrids began trying to interact with all of their former friends, as though nothing had changed, and it worked surprisingly well. Penny reconnected with Connie, Sadie and Lars, as well as being formally introduced to Greg. At Sour Cream's invitation, Andrew started spending time with him, Buck Dewey, and Jenny Pizza. Amelia bonded with her family, including her new half-brother, Onion, and step-father, Yellowtail.

A few days after the Crystal Hybrids' arrival, Amelia sat with Steven on his bed, playing video games, while Andrew and Penny sat at the breakfast counter. Penny was showing Andrew something on her phone, and the two of them were discussing it in hushed tones. With a chiming sound, the Temple door divided into three sections and slid away, revealing Garnet's room, from which Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl entered the house.

"Crystal Hybrids." Garnet dramatically announced. "It's been an unusual few days, and we've all needed time to adjust, but it's time we got back to work." Steven and Amelia looked away from their game and sat on the edge of Steven's bedroom expectantly. Andrew lowered Penny's phone, and the two of them gave Garnet their attention too. "Five days ago, two hostile, Homeworld Gems came here in a ship, for unknown reasons, which they neglected, in an attempt to abduct us."

"We know, we just saw Ronaldo's blog." Andrew said. "It says the ship crashed?"

"Yes, and the Gems are currently at large." Garnet confirmed.

"Who are they?" Penny asked.

Pearl stepped forwards and projected a hologram of Jasper. "This is Jasper. It's likely she was the muscle of the group, and knew little to nothing about their objective. Nevertheless, she's very dangerous. Presently, she being held at the bottom of the ocean, in an unstable fusion, named Malachite, by our ally, Lapis Lazuli."

"A fusion, working as a prison...?" Andrew said, in a voice which advertised his distaste. He slowly curled his fingers over his gems.

"I'm not a fan either." Garnet consoled him. "We need to find them, and separate them, as soon as possible... For everyone's sake..."

"Then there's this one..." Pearl sighed, as her hologram assumed the form of Peridot.

Amelia, Penny and Andrew all reacted visibly and audibly, to the hologram.

"Peridot!" Amelia cried.

"You know her?" Pearl asked.

"She's one of the Crystal Gems, in our world." Andrew said, remorsefully.

"She's a good guy?" Amethyst asked.

Andrew cringed. "Not exactly... I mean yes, now... but only after we defeated her guards, destroyed her ship and all the traces of the kindergarten, before she could reactivate it."

"So, she pledged loyalty to you, only after you defeated her." Garnet noted, clearly disapproving of such a fickle alliance.

"No, the Peridot in our world was super nice, and she loved the earth!" Penny said. "It just took the desperation of being trapped here, and abandoned by Yellow Diamond, to make her see that..." Penny frowned, as she realised how bad that sounded.

"Anyway..." Andrew said, standing up. "She's probably already started rebooting the kindergarten by now, like she did in our world. If she's not still there, I'm sure we'll be able to track her."

Andrew walked towards the Warp Pad with purpose. Penny walked confidently at his side, while Amelia dropped from Steven's bedroom and ran after them. When Andrew reached the Warp Pad, he noticed Garnet, on the other side, staring at him, through her visor. Pearl and Amethyst looked at her, nervously.

"Sorry Garnet." Andrew said, casually, not sounding very sorry, at all. "That's your call, of course."

Garnet adjusted her visor, as though deep in thought. Steven looked between the two teams, nervously, as though a fight was about to break out.

"Good plan..." Garnet eventually said. She walked over the Warp Pad, and past Andrew. "Amethyst, Pearl and I will check the bottom of the ocean for Malachite, the Crystal Hybrids will investigate the Kindergarten."

Steven looked worriedly between the Warp Pad, and the Gems, as they headed for the door. "Wh... what should I do?"

Garnet turned to him. "Like I said... Crystal Hybrids, to the Kindergarten."

Steven beamed happily. It hadn't even occurred to him that Garnet might trust him to embark on a mission without any of the Gems. He raced over to Warp Pad. Andrew frowned, subtly, shooting a fleeting glance at Steven as he joined them. The Crystal Gems left the beach house, which was obscured from the hybrids' view as the Warp Pad was activated, before being replaced by the dreary sight of the Kindergarten.

"Oh my gosh!" Steven shouted, his voice echoing throughout the canyon, as he jumped from the Warp Pad, and away from the other hybrids. "This is the first official mission of the new Crystal Hybrids!"

"Yeah..." Andrew said, abruptly, with an anger that only Penny seemed to notice.

Penny looked at her brother nervously, before turning to Amelia. "Hey, why don't you go talk to Steven for a sec? I wanna have a word with Andrew."

"Okay..." Amelia said. She gave a nervous look towards Andrew, before complying with Penny's request.

"You're upset." Penny stated, quietly, once Steven and Amelia were out of earshot.

The team began to walk through the canyon, each pair engaged in their own conversation.

"No, I'm not." Andrew replied, in a neutral voice.

"At Steven?" Penny asked, ignoring Andrew's denial.

"No... I mean, I'm not... shut up."

"At Garnet..." Penny said, nodding her head, in realisation.

Andrew shot Penny an irritated look, and sighed, resignedly. "Without Rose, I'm this team's leader, not her." He explained, pointing at the ground, to specify he was talking about himself and his siblings. "I don't appreciate her assigning Steven to us, like that."

"What's wrong with Steven? He's my half-brother!" Penny said, defensively. "And the other half is Rose!"

"No, Steven's great, that's not the point. I just don't like Garnet taking liberties with my team, and deciding who comes on my missions."

Penny rolled her eyes. "You're being childish."

Andrew scowled at her slightly. "If anything, I'm being proud..."

"You know those two words usually mean the same thing, right?" Penny said, smiling coyly. Andrew ignored her, for a while, before she continued. "Like it or not, our two teams are merging, and there's only gonna be one leader, and you're lacking in both the homefield advantage, and a few millennia of experience." There was another pause, in which Andrew declined to contribute. "Come on! I know we haven't been here long, but you know she's a good leader."

"She's alright..." Andrew admitted. "But she's no Rose Quartz..." Ahead of them, Steven and Amelia were taking it in turns, doing cartwheels, both of them laughing happily. "Neither is he, for that matter..."

"Really? He seems very similar, to me." Penny laughed. "Anyway, my point is, be nice to him, okay? He's pretty sensitive."

Penny and Andrew caught up with Steven and Amelia, and the four of them continued through the Kindergarten, until they reached a point where the canyon divided in two, branching off in different directions.

"Can you sense which way we have to go?" Steven asked Andrew.

Andrew looked down both paths, then closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. "No..." He conceded. "Peridot was never very violent, we'll be just as safe, whether or not we run into her. Either this Peridot's the same, or she's not here. Either way, it's safe to split up. Penny, Amelia, you two go left, Steven and I will go this way."

"Aye aye, captain." Penny said, jokingly, with a rigid salute.

Steven and Andrew made their way down their side of the canyon. Having quite suddenly switched their pairings, it was a few seconds, before Steven spoke. "So, what's Peridot like, where you're from?"

"She's... funny." Andrew said, selecting the best, single word to sum up his friend. "She's a huge nerd, lives on social media, and never shuts up about that show, with the Canadian teenagers, at that camp? You might not have it, here." Andrew smirked at Peridot's obsession. He had always found it endearing.

"Camp Pining Hearts?"

"That's it. But at the same time, she's got a heart of gold, never gives up, and always does everything she can, to help out on our missions." Andrew sighed fondly, he was going to miss her. "What's she like here?"

"I've only met her a few times... She tried to squish me with a big, robot hand once." Steven said, reluctant to speak ill of Andrew's friend. "And blow us all up with her ship's laser..."

"Yeah, that's her..." Andrew sighed. "You have to understand, Steven, Homeworld Gems spend their whole lives, being told that organic life has no value, and most of them never even see an organic lifeform, so never have a reason to think otherwise. It would be like if I told you that sand had feelings, and doesn't like being stepped on."

"If you told me that, I'd build a ladder up to the top of the cliff, so I could get to town without stepping on it." Steven said.

Andrew sighed again, knowing Rose, he was sure Steven would do that. "Yeah, well not everyone's like you... Humans and Gems alike."

The two continued in relative silence, until they rounded a small rock formation, and froze in their tracks, as they came face to face with Peridot. The two parties stood, with barely two feet between them. Peridot had been holding up her hand, examining a stream of data on one of her screens, but yelped in surprise, upon seeing the hybrids, and froze in place. Andrew and Peridot stood roughly at the same height, with Peridot's limb enhancers, and they locked eyes, unrelentingly. The tension between them was electrical, as neither of them were sure how to proceed.

Steven waved cheerfully. "Hi there!"


	7. The Leader of the Crystal Hybrids

"Peridot!" Andrew said, suddenly, and quickly.

Peridot screeched and leapt into action, like a wild animal that had been startled. She lifted her weaponised arm-enhancer.

"Peridot, Facet..." Andrew screwed up his face in concentration and snapped his fingers a couple of times. "2F... 5L Cut... erm... something... XG!"

Peridot lowered her hand just slightly, and looked at Andrew in cautious curiosity. "How do you know that...?"

"Because I'm your friend, Peridot..." Andrew said, desperate for Peridot to understand.

Peridot took a step back, cautiously. "I don't have any friends! I have colleagues... and none of them are muddy, organic earth clods!"

In his head, Andrew raced through possible angles from which to approach Peridot, to explain their relationship. He could tell Peridot the entire truth, that he was from another universe where they were already friends, or water down the truth, and convince her that he knew of her, by revealing some personal information, or simply not say anything too unbelievable, and attempt to build Peridot's trust from the ground up. The third option seemed the most likely to succeed.

"Peridot, you can trust me!" Andrew insisted. "I know why you're here! Yellow Diamond sent you to restart the Kindergarten, but that's not..."

Peridot immediately refocused her hand on Andrew. "Wrong!"

The fingers on Peridot's right hand assumed their firing formation, with one trained forwards, and the others pointing inwards, and, without warning, she unleashed a bombardment of laser fire at Andrew. Without a trace of concern, Andrew swayed left and right, barely moving his feet to avoid Peridot's attacks. Eventually, Andrew ducked under one of Peridot's laser blasts, and, summoning his gauntlet on his right hand, grabbed hold of Peridot's offending digit. Peridot attempted to fire again, but with Andrew blocking her line of fire, her weapon backfired violently, and Peridot was consumed by a cloud of smoke.

The startled, green Gem staggered backwards, readjusting her eyes and ears, after the shock of the explosion. When the smoke cleared, Peridot lifted her arm again, and gasped in distress, when she noticed sparks leaping from the casing, and her fingers drifting back and forth, aimlessly. Immediately after Peridot noticed the damage, her limb enhancer slid off her hand and clattered, lifelessly to the floor.

"Nooo!" Peridot cried, looking at her real hand. "I need that!"

Peridot looked up at Steven and Andrew just briefly, before turning around and running.

Andrew immediately gave pursuit. "Steven, grab that!" He ordered, over his shoulder, pointing at Peridot's limb enhancer, as he ran past it, before calling after Peridot. "Peridot we know each other! Your favourite colour is maroon! Your manager is a Morganite, and you call her a loud-mouthed pebble behind her back! You once intercepted an episode of Doctor Who, and it took you three years to figure out it wasn't a documentary!"

Peridot continued running away, somewhat off-balanced by her mismatched arms. If the things Andrew was saying were true, she gave no sign of being surprised, or yielding. She approached the vertical wall of the Kindergarten, and ran up its surface, as though she was running up a gentle hill. Andrew came to a stop at the wall, as Peridot ascended, laughing triumphantly as she got further away.

Steven caught up with Andrew, holding Peridot's severed arm, and slightly out of breath. "What do we do now?"

"We follow her." Andrew said, decisively. "Don't get too close, and don't overtake her. We'll confront her when she gets to the top of the canyon."

Before Steven could tell Andrew that he lacked his mother's aerial abilities, Andrew leapt upwards like a superhero. Rapidly closing the gap between himself and Peridot, Andrew used the spider-like injectors, embedded in the cliff face, as footholds, leaping between them with little regard for gravity. Half-way up the wall, Peridot looked over her shoulder and cried out in alarm, in reaction to the pursuing hybrid.

"Ugh... why can't you leave me alone, you abomination against science!?"

With her remaining hand, Peridot began launching a barrage of laser fire at the injectors ahead of her. One by one, they were blasted from the canyon wall, and began raining down. Andrew increased his speed, racing between the falling injectors, while also predicting which ones he could jump to, without being crushed. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the canyon, Steven, who had been watching the chase develop, ran fearfully through the Kindergarten, as the injectors fell.

Andrew landed on top of the highest remaining injector, below Peridot. He crouched down, closed his eyes and summoned all of his strength. He could almost feel the energy flowing from the palms of his hands, through to his legs and feet. Andrew looked up, locked his eyes on the fleeing Peridot, and jumped. The glass surface of the injector beneath him, shattered violently, as he flew upwards. Andrew's heart raced as he began to slow, and the distance between him and Peridot closed.

Seconds before Andrew succumbed to gravity, he managed to grab onto Peridot's newly disarmed hand. Peridot stumbled backwards, and almost fell off the canyon wall, before pointing her other hand upwards, and having her fingers spin rapidly, like a propeller.

"Let go of me, you rock-headed clod!" Peridot demanded. "I can't hold both of our weights!"

Sure enough, Peridot ran in place, on the canyon wall, as her feet struggled to stay connected. Andrew quickly pulled himself upwards, placed his feet on the canyon wall, wrapped his arm around Peridot's torso and jumped. With the startled, green Gem wailing in alarm, Andrew flew over the width of the canyon, high into the air, and landed on the stable ground, atop the other side. Andrew and Peridot rolled upon landing, and lay still, both breathing loudly in relief, despite one of them not actually needing to.

The top of the canyon, surrounding the Kindergarten, looked much like its depths. The ground was course and barren, and there wasn't a plant to be seen. The only features of the desolate landscape, were the occasional, inactive injector.

"Peridot... please listen to me..." Andrew pleaded, breathlessly, as the two of them climbed to their feet. "Whatever you're doing here, your ship is destroyed, and you're stuck."

"Destroyed by you Crystal abominations!" Peridot angrily reminded him.

Andrew shook his head. "No, we're not the Crystal Gems." Andrew said, partially telling the truth. "Whatever problem you have with them, isn't with us! You've no reason to think I don't want to help you, so _please_ let me..."

Peridot frowned at Andrew suspiciously, but notably, didn't attempt to flee again. "Who _are_ you...?"

Andrew sighed. Peridot was trusting him enough to hear him out, it seemed he owed her the truth. "I'm a Gem human hybrid, born on this planet." He explained, showing Peridot his gems. "I'm not affiliated with the Crystal Gems _or_ the Diamonds, but I know you, and I know you're a good Gem!"

Peridot looked at Andrew's gems, then looked him up and down. Clearly, she was curious to know how Andrew knew her and why he was so keen on helping her, but that wasn't what she eventually asked. "This planet is your home?"

"Yeah?"

"Then you don't want to help me..." Peridot stated, factually.

Still eyeing Andrew cautiously, lest he pursue her again, Peridot lifted her hand above her head, and allowed her spinning fingers to carry her into the air. Andrew stood motionlessly as Peridot flew away, her words ringing in his ears. Why was Peridot so sure that Andrew would be opposed to what she was doing? If she had attempted to restart the Kindergarten, as she had in Andrew's world, that would certainly be bad, but it seemed that here, she had come to do something else. Potentially something worse, based on Peridot's confidence, in her claim.

Andrew was uncomfortably in the dark. Just as Rose had taught him, he needed to gather intelligence, before he proceeded, and he would start with finding out what Peridot was doing on earth, and he knew just where to start looking.

-x-x-x-

"You had her and you let her go!?" Pearl shrieked in disbelief.

Back at the house, Penny was making intricate repairs to Peridot's severed arm, on the breakfast counter, with the use of tiny, needle-like tools, with small, red gems on the tips. Lying next to it, were four of Peridot's cylindrical fingers, in a square, occasionally, very briefly manifesting a screen between them.

"I spoke to her, and tried to earn her trust. She's defensive and proud, just like in our world." Andrew said, without a trace of regret in his voice.

Garnet walked over to the counter and looked directly at Andrew. Even with half of her face concealed by her visor, her expression was immediately recognised by Steven and Amethyst, who had both been on the receiving end of it, multiple times. It was a look of disappointment. "Andrew, our objective is to capture these Homeworld Gems." She stated. "By letting her go, you've endangered this world."

Penny hadn't looked up since beginning her repairs, but she worriedly looked up at Andrew, after hearing Garnet's words. Sure enough, Andrew's annoyance at Garnet's assertiveness was clear on his face.

"Garnet, with all due respect..." Andrew began, in a disrespectful tone of voice. "I didn't ask for your guidance or leadership, and I don't need it. I've been spearheading missions, alongside Rose Quartz and our own Peridot, since I was sixteen, and since neither of them are here, that makes me a leader of my own team, not a new member of yours!"

Amelia and Steven looked worriedly between the two of them. Pearl bit her fingertips nervously and Amethyst grinned like a child, watching a playground brawl commence.

"Hey, it's okay!" Steven said, in a desperate attempt to defuse the situation. "Once Penny's repaired Peridot's arm, she'll be able to..."

Garnet interrupted Steven, never taking her eyes off Andrew. "You are in a world you're not familiar with, facing an enemy you don't understand. This is not the Peridot you befriended. Without knowing what her intentions are, you are putting this world at unnecessary risk, by setting her loose!"

"Andrew, Garnet might be right..." Penny said, sympathetically. "I mean, my dad is really different from..."

Andrew was no more tempted than Garnet, to be persuaded to stand down. "Setting her loose!? I know that was my friend I spoke to, not a wild animal! I'll stop her if I have to, but I will not let her be sealed away in a bubble for the rest of her life!"

Garnet and Andrew both leaned over the counter, their foreheads inches away from each other. Penny quickly scooped Peridot's arm and fingers towards her, lest one of them break them.

"What you'll allow to happen is no concern of this team!" Garnet snapped. "We are united in a mission to protect the earth, and if you can't commit to that cause, then you can't be on this team!"

"That's what I'm saying!" Andrew retorted, irritably. "I'm not a member of your team! You're not my leader, and if you'll pardon the _unbelievable_ cliché, you're not my mum, either!"

Garnet ground her teeth in frustration and lightly but decisively slammed her fist on the counter. Over the course of a few seconds, Garnet's form glowed a bright white, and she shrank and forcefully separated into the smaller forms of Ruby and Sapphire.

"You are such a brat!" Ruby angrily shouted at Andrew.

Andrew stormed around the counter and began walking backwards, towards the door, boastfully brandishing his gems at Ruby. "Well you're unstable."

With that, Andrew swept from the beach house, and slammed the door behind him.

* * *

 **I put some thought into whether Andrew would say "mum" or "mom". In my head, all of my OCs have English accents, because that's how I talk, but if I had to establish a canon, I'd say Andrew does, in fact, have an English accent. I like to think that's something he'd inherit from Garnet, despite being raised by Rose.**


	8. Garnet vs Andrew

"Ugh! I can't believe there's a version of us who made someone so annoying!" Ruby cried at Sapphire, while angrily pacing back and forth.

At the breakfast counter, Penny was staring intently at Peridot's arm and was visibly trying (and failing) not to giggle. When she realised everyone was looking at her, she explained. "You realise he's almost exactly like Garnet, right?"

Ruby bit her bottom lip and stifled a cry of anger. "Garnet can follow orders when she has to!"

"Garnet followed Rose Quartz..." Sapphire elaborated. "And so did he... We wouldn't find it any easier, being in a new world, having to follow orders from another Garnet."

"Well he'd better get used to it!" Ruby snapped, folding her arms. "Because Garnet's the boss, and he can either get on board, or find a new universe!"

Amelia began to look distraught, in reaction to Ruby's words. "You're not going to kick him out, are you?"

Ruby looked into Amelia's eyes and froze, as though she had made eye contact with a gorgon. Ruby quickly found it impossible to be angry, upon seeing Amelia's vulnerable, adorable expression, as she was on the verge of tears.

"Of course not." Sapphire replied, reassuringly. "We just need to find a way to persuade him to accept Garnet as a leader."

"Why did he follow Rose so willingly?" Pearl subjected to the room.

"He respected her as a warrior." Penny replied. "He grew up hearing stories from the Gem War, and watching her fight off Homeworld scouts and soldiers."

Ruby frowned and stroked her chin, thoughtfully. "So, all we have to do, is show him what a powerhouse Garnet is... and he'll do what we say!"

Sapphire smiled knowingly. "I have an idea..."

Grinning expectantly, Ruby offered her hand to Sapphire, who took it, resulting in a flash of light, and Garnet's reforming. Without a word, Garnet walked across the living room, and threw the house's door open.

"Andrew!" She called out.

Andrew was sitting, cross-legged on the beach, not far from the house, facing the sea. Garnet leapt over the house's hand rail, and landed lightly, next to him. The five occupants of the house raced onto the house's decking, to watch the scene as it unfolded.

"I shouldn't have treated you like one of the Crystal Gems." Garnet conceded. "Like you said, you're not a member of my team, you're the leader of your own. But if we're going to live together, and protect this planet together, then we'll have to be one team, with one leader."

Andrew remained focused on the waves, and breathed out slowly. "And you're here to get me to accept you as a leader..." Andrew finished, irritably.

"No." Garnet replied. "I'm here so you can help me figure out who that leader should be."

The rest of the Gems, could be heard reacting to Garnet's surprising words.

Andrew looked up at her. "What...?"

"Andrew, I challenge you to a one-on-one fight, for the position of leader of the Crystal Gems."

-x-x-x-

After Garnet's astonishing announcement, and repeated inquiries as to whether or not she was actually serious, plans were made for Andrew and Garnet's epic showdown. There was really only one place where the fight could be had, the Sky Arena, where Pearl had attempted to train Steven in swordplay. There were relatively few preparations to make, although Steven insisted on inviting Greg and Connie, to witness potential history in action.

Altogether, the group of nine humans, Gems and variations thereof, squeezed onto the Warp Pad, and were taken to the scene of the upcoming battle. The spectators took their seats, as Andrew and Garnet stood on what remained of the Sky Arena's floor, with its remaining two pillars, which hadn't simply crumbled and floated away.

"I still don't get why Garnet would gamble with her position like this." Connie said, quietly. She addressed Amethyst, Greg and Penny, who were sitting closest to her. "Is it because she's already seen the outcome?"

Penny shook her head. "Future vision works by calculating the movement of the universe and everything in it. Andrew, Amelia and I are from a different universe, so it doesn't work on us. It will eventually, as the universe settles around us, but not yet."

"So, Garnet might actually lose!?" Connie gasped.

"Pfft, no way!" Amethyst laughed. "Andrew's tough, but he's just a kid! Garnet's a bazillion-year-old Gem warrior! She's a shoo-in!"

"Well... yes..." Pearl hesitantly agreed. "Except Gems don't age or mature, so age only means so much... at eighteen years old, Andrew is a human/Gem hybrid in his physical prime... something we've never seen before..."

"I'm still dealing with the fact that a fusion can have a kid..." Greg remarked. "Who knows what's gonna happen?"

"Okay!" Steven loudly announced, once everyone was ready. He stood between Andrew and Garnet, doing his best impression of a wrestling referee. "In this corner, we have the dynamo from Homeworld, the Ruby and Sapphire working as one, current leader of the Crystal Gems... it's... GARNET!"

Amethyst cheered loudly. "Wooo! Kick his butt, Garnet!"

Steven held out his other hand. "And in this corner, we have the renegade hybrid from another universe, the power of two Gems with the attitude of a human teenager... it's... ANDREW!"

"You got this, Andrew!" Penny shouted.

"You can do it!" Amelia added.

"This will be a fight to the dissipation, or submission." Steven said, indicating to Garnet and Andrew, respectively. "And the winner will be in charge of the Crystal Gems, from now on! Ready... FIGHT!"

Steven quickly ran over to the steps where the others were sitting, and Andrew and Garnet stared each other down. They tensed their hands, each ready to summon their gauntlets, the second the other made the first move. One could almost see the tumbleweed rolling between them. Ultimately, they both struck as one. Andrew and Garnet lunged forwards, summoning their gauntlets, and opened with a right hook, the two punches connected explosively between them, resulting in a shock wave which almost rid Connie of her cap.

Garnet thrust forwards and Andrew rolled evasively to the side. He kicked the back of Garnet's leg, and followed through with a punch to the side of her afro, which sent her sliding backwards, on the balls of her feet. Before Garnet could attack again, Andrew's gauntlets launched at Garnet like missiles. While Garnet evaded Andrew's projectiles, running across the battlefield, in a wide circle, around her opponent, Andrew repeatedly summoned more gauntlet missiles, firing them before his previous ones had even detonated.

"Can Garnet quickfire like that...?" Connie breathed.

Amethyst barely tore her eyes off the fight for a second, to shrug in response, uncertainly.

Garnet darted left and right, avoiding Andrew's attacks, as she drew closer, before kicking one of his gauntlets aside, and striking back with her own. For several seconds, the two were locked in blindingly fast close-quarters combat, punching, blocking and evading. Garnet eventually got the upper hand, by sweeping Andrew's feet from underneath him, with a swing of her leg, and following through, before he hit the ground, with a punch to his torso. Andrew flew across the arena and slammed, backwards into a pillar, which fractured on impact.

"Andrew!" Amelia called out, worriedly.

Garnet lunged towards the Andrew, but he was ready. Andrew leapt up the length of the pillar, kicked off it and spun around in the air, so he flew over the centre of the battlefield. Targeting Garnet, beneath him, Andrew launched both of his gauntlets as one, except this time, moments after launching, both weapons exploded, and a hundred tiny shards flew towards Garnet, like a flurry of bullets.

"Garnet _definitely_ can't do that!" Amethyst shouted.

For a moment, Garnet actually looked worried. Before the shards struck, Garnet kicked the pillar, shattering its base in such a way that it fell towards her, allowing her to catch it above her head, like an oversized shield. The fragments of Andrew's gauntlets ravaged the battlefield and obscured Garnet in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, the tiled floor had been reduced to gravel, and almost half the pillar had been chipped away.

Without holding back, Garnet hurled what was left of the pillar, at Andrew, like a colossal javelin. Without missing a beat, Andrew leapt upwards and jumped off the pillar as it flew, just as Garnet had expected him to. Garnet leapt at her adversary, in the air, punching at the critical moment, after he jumped, in which he was unable to block.

Garnet's gauntlet connected squarely with Andrew's stomach. While he was winded, Garnet seized his ankles, while still in the air and, after spinning vertically a few times, brought him slamming down into the arena floor, prompting a wince from all the human, and half-human spectators.

Garnet stood up straight, confidently. Steven was about to rush over to the two of them to announce the winner, and try to heal Andrew, if necessary, when Andrew sprung into life. Arching his back, Andrew flipped backwards into a crouching position, and charged at Garnet once more. His arms, like the pistons on some overworked machine, Andrew threw punch after punch at Garnet's gauntlets, raised in defense. He made no attempt to out-maneuver her, and simply continued his furious onslaught, in the hopes of wearing her down.

Andrew's flying gauntlets were an untraceable, red blur, and the sound of their repeated collisions was barely tolerable. Despite her best efforts, Garnet was forced backwards across the arena, her feet inching across its surface with each punch. As Garnet drew dangerously close to the edge of the floating structure, though, Andrew very gradually began to slow, and through the maroon blur that was his gauntlets, Garnet could just about make out sweat on his forehead.

Seizing her opportunity, and with impeccable timing, Garnet pulled back one of her gauntlets as Andrew was about to strike, resulting in him lunging dangerously close to her, with no way to defend himself. Garnet wrapped an arm around the side of his head and dragged him to the ground, in a wrestling hold, holding him securely, without harming him, or putting herself in reach of his weapons.

"Yield!" Garnet ordered. "You'll over-exert yourself!"

Steven and the others raced across the arena, without straying too far from the seating area, lest the fight continue. They watched, with baited breath, awaiting Andrew's response. Andrew breathed heavily, both due to his exhaustion, and the rush of adrenaline. He assessed his and Garnet's positions. If he launched his gauntlets directly at the ground, he could probably free himself and continue the fight, but Garnet wasn't wrong...

Andrew slowly exhaled, dispersed his gauntlets, and relaxed.

"Okay..." He sighed, contentedly. "You're the leader."


	9. Book Club

Sapphire's plan worked better than anyone could have hoped. Garnet won Andrew's respect in their brawl, and he was happy to accept her leadership from then on, and even asked her to spar with him, when he wanted to train. At the same time, Garnet also respected Andrew's own skills as a leader, and still afforded him the freedom to carry out the missions she delegated to him, how he saw fit.

Over the following few days, Garnet reported two more opportunities to intercept Peridot, but they were unsuccessful in both capturing, and befriending her. All the while, Penny continued her work on Peridot's hand, in the hopes of extracting the data it possessed. She had disassembled the device, down to its core components, and laid them out carefully, on the length of the breakfast table, and all but hissed at anyone who moved any of them, even slightly. Peal had offered her assistance, but like Penny's own mother, Pearl was hopelessly inexperienced with the sophisticated workings of Era 2 Gem technology, unlike Penny, who had been extensively taught, by the Peridot from her world.

Five days after Andrew and Garnet's fight, Penny was taking a much-needed break, lying on her back, on Steven's sofa, reading one of the Spirit Morph books Connie had loaned Steven, while the two of them watched her eagerly, hanging on her occasional comments. As it turned out, Penny's world had Spirit Morph books too, and she had always been a big fan, but in Steven and Connie's universe, the books were riddled with differences, of various degrees of subtlety.

"Wait, Archimicarus is a boy?" Penny said, quietly.

"Yeah, isn't he in your world's books?" Connie asked.

"No, she's a girl falcon."

"Is the main character a boy?" Steven asked. "Called... Leroy?"

"No, they're both girls, that's the point." Penny replied. "The books are set in an aggressively patriarchal world, with exaggerated references to real life, and a lot of Lisa's Spirit Trials are heavy-handed metaphors for the struggles young, gay women face in the real world... at least that's my theory."

"So, they still get married in the end?" Connie asked.

Penny rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and that bit I didn't like. I mean, I loved that they fell in love, and it was so sweet, but why would a falcon have any care for the human concept of marriage? Especially since, back in those days, it was hardly any more than the legal sale of a woman to her fiancé!"

"Well, my theory is that they never should have fallen in love in the first place." Connie said, reprising what she had told Steven. "I think the author was writing for the more fickle fans, at the request of the publisher, instead of finishing the story the way she had wanted to!"

"And I think the ending was perfect the way it was, but I respect our difference of opinion." Steven proudly informed Penny.

"I wish I could read the books from your world!" Connie said, longingly. "It would be like a cool reboot!"

"Hang on..." Penny said.

She rested the book on the sofa next to her, crossed her hands over her chest and closed her eyes, as if she was going to sleep. A few seconds passed, and Connie and Steven were about to ask what she was doing, when they were startled to see the gem on Penny's forehead glowing brightly. Several more seconds passed, before a small, white crystal floated upwards from the gem, and Penny quickly opened her eyes and plucked it from the air. Her gem stopped glowing immediately.

Penny held the crystal out to Connie. "Here you go."

Connie took the crystal curiously. After fiddling with it for a second, she gasped as a flat, rectangular screen was projected upwards from it, featuring a list (clearly hand written, in English, on the crystal's interface) of book titles.

"No waaay..." Connie whispered.

She tapped on Unfamiliar Familiar and the list was replaced with what was clearly a photograph of the first page of the book, but with such quality that it was perfectly legible.

"I prefer the feel and smell of paper, but you never know when you'll need a book, in a pinch." Penny said.

"I agree completely!" Connie said, as she experimented with the crystal's interface. "Like, I have a Kindle, and it's super useful, but it's just not the same as a real book, ya know?"

Steven and Connie began reading Penny's version of the Unfamiliar Familiar, while Penny continued reading Connie's, and silence fell for several minutes.

"So, you two are BFF's in this world, right?" Penny eventually asked, rhetorically.

"I guess so." Steven said, confidently.

"We don't really label it." Connie elabourated.

Penny sighed, and her eyes seemed to drift away from her book, as she stared at the house's ceiling.

"What was the Connie in your world like?" Connie asked, gently, sensing that Penny was upset.

"She was super smart, and fun, and I guess we were BFF's without labels too." Penny said. "Peridot said that she shipped us though..." Penny laughed weakly.

"Was she... like me?" Connie asked, awkwardly, emphasising her question. "Or really different, like your dad?"

"She was pretty much exactly like you..." Penny said, blushing slightly when she realised that meant Peridot would have shipped the two of them, too. Connie was similarly embarrassed.

Penny rolled onto her side, put her book down, and looked at Steven and Connie. "So, can you two fuse?" She asked, innocently.

"Yeah, we form Stevonnie!" Steven said, with a smile. He pulled out his phone and showed Penny a selfie Stevonnie had taken with it, grinning happily. "Can you, Andrew and Amelia fuse with humans, too?"

"Well, Amelia doesn't have enough control of her gem to fuse, yet. Andrew was never close enough with his human friends to fuse with them, but he could fuse with Amethyst and Peridot."

"Hybrids can fuse with Gems!?" Steven demanded, his eyes sparkling excitedly. In his mind, he raced through possible fusions between himself, and Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl.

"What about you?" Connie coaxed Penny.

"The only person I ever fused with, was you..." Penny replied, quietly. "We thought about amalgamating our names, like you two did, but that would have meant a choice between 'Pennie' or 'Conny'…" Penny smiled as she remembered how hilarious their fusion had found that. "In the end, we decided on Keshi."

"Ooh, because it's a kind of Pearl." Connie quickly realised. Connie studied Penny's expression some more, she was clearly very upset, about being separated from her Connie. "Do you... want to try forming Keshi with me?" She hesitantly offered.

Penny and Steven both audibly gasped in surprise.

"I... if you want to!" Connie continued. "I know it must be tough being in a new world, with a new Connie who doesn't know you, but maybe if you knew you could still be Keshi... you wouldn't feel so... alone?"

Penny stared at Connie in surprise. Obviously, this wasn't a position her own Connie had ever been in, but it was both shocking and humbling, that Connie was prepared to perform an action as intimate as fusing with her for the first time, just to make her feel better. Penny was sure her Connie would have done the same. She was both flattered and touched by the offer.

"Okay..." Penny said, uncertainly, and then, much more confidently, "Yeah!"

The two girls joined in the centre of the house, where Penny started playing music on her phone. While Connie energetically shook her arms and shoulders, Penny's dancing was reminiscent of Pearl's graceful ballet, but with a speed and energy which matched Connie perfectly. After dancing towards each other, Penny span Connie around and leaned forwards, catching her friend before she fell. Starting at Penny's gem, the two of them were consumed with white light, which shone for several seconds, filling Steven with anticipation, but when it faded, Connie and Penny were still separate.

"It... didn't work..." Connie pointed out, disappointedly.

Penny smiled. "I guess you still don't know me as well as I know you..."

"I'm sorry..." Connie said. "I know this means a lot to you."

"No!" Penny quickly argued. "What means a lot is that you were prepared to try! I'm really glad that you're as sweet as the Connie I knew..."

Penny and Connie both blushed at the compliment.

"Is anyone else, totally starving?" Penny awkwardly changed the subject, with a laugh. She pointed at Connie and Steven in turn. "Big Doughnut? Big Doughnut?"

"Sure!" Steven enthusiastically agreed.

"Okay... but don't tell my parents!" Connie grinned mischievously.

As Connie and Penny ran ahead, chatting animatedly, Steven hung back and frowned to himself. He had felt a twinge of nervousness when Connie offered to fuse with Penny, and had felt relieved when it failed. Steven felt guilty, fusing would have made Penny very happy, why wouldn't he want that for her? Exploring his feelings further, Steven realised how much he valued the uniqueness of his relationship with Connie, and their subsequent fusion. Surely that didn't make sense? Surely that was a ridiculous reason to appreciate having a person in one's life?

Steven imagined if Connie and Penny were able to form Keshi at will. What would that mean for Stevonnie? If the three of them were to keep spending time together, then it would be crass for Connie to fuse with them alternately. Steven caught himself before he continued down that path any further. Who Connie chose to fuse with was her choice, and wouldn't affect her relationship with Steven.

Pushing his concerns to the back of his mind, Steven followed his friends out of the house, and ran to catch up with them, on their way to the Big Doughnut.


	10. Love Letters: Redux

The sun shone down on the Crystal Gems' temple, as work on expanding the beach house was finally underway. The plan was simply to recreate Andrew's room and Penny and Amelia's room, while Steven kept his mezzanine bedroom, uninterested in offers for him, too, to finally have a private bedroom. Greg had parked his van on the beach, loaded with building supplies, while Steven and Andrew lifted the heavy parts, and began construction, under Greg's guidance, remembering what he had learnt when he and the Gems had built the house, the first time.

Penny remained inside, where she was disassembling various terrestrial electronic devices, in search of compatible components, to replace the damaged ones from Peridot's arm, Amelia was spending the day with her family, Amethyst and Pearl were out, looking for Peridot, while Garnet searched the ocean floor, for Malachite.

Although Steven seemed unphased, Andrew compensated for the summer heat, and his strenuous workout, by downsizing his wardrobe to a black vest and a pair of shorts. His purple-tipped hair was combed out of his face, allowing him to enjoy the pleasant, ocean breeze.

After routing through the van for a moment, Andrew lifted a bulky, wooden beam onto his shoulder, and turned around to carry it to the house, where he was surprised to see Jamie the mailman, talking to Steven, seemingly discussing a large quantity of letters and parcels Steven had received.

"Hey Andrew!" Steven called, as the other hybrid approached. "Do you know Jamie?"

"Andr...?" Jamie began, but he trailed off into an incoherent drawl when he turned around and saw Andrew approaching.

"Jamie!" Andrew happily greeted, setting the beam down in the sand, and shaking Jamie's hand, somewhat bemused by his stunned, unblinking eyes, and how his mouth was hanging open slightly. "I was beginning to worry there wasn't a version of you in this universe."

"A... Andrew... I'm An… I mean... you're Andrew... I've... I've heard about you and your sisters, in town..." Jamie babbled nervously.

"You okay, Jamie?" Andrew asked, with a smirk. His Jamie had always been incredibly dramatic, presumably something was occupying his thoughts, and he was overreacting to it.

"So, you... already know me...?" Jamie asked, his voice trembling.

"Yeah, we hung out now and then, in my old universe, you always seemed cool. Are you an actor in this universe, too?" Andrew asked, suspecting that to be the case, from the sunglasses in Jamie's hair, with the words 'Movie Star' on them.

"I... erm... actually... just came back from Kansas... I fear my dreams of being an actor, are for naught!" Jamie replied.

"You applied for theatrical roles?" Andrew prompted.

"Yeah...?"

"Then you're an actor." Andrew patted Jamie's shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

Jamie blushed furiously. He plunged his hand into his bag and gave a handful of its contents to Steven, without looking. "Well, here's the rest of your mail!" He said, quickly, his voice coarse. With that, he turned around and marched rigidly down the beach and back towards town.

Steven and Andrew were stunned for a moment. Eventually, Steven looked at the letters he'd been given. "Half of these aren't for me..."

"Does he have a nervous disorder, or something, in this universe?" Andrew asked, still staring down the beach, where Jamie had vanished.

"I don't think so."

"Weird..."

-x-x-x-

By the time evening came, the extension for the house was coming along nicely. They had put off knocking the wall of the house through for as long as possible, for obvious reasons, so the house was still the same, from inside.

Finished working, for the day, the Crystal Hybrids had gathered on and around Steven's bed, to watch one of the Lonely Blade movies. The franchise was a favourite of Andrew's, and unlike the Spirit Morph saga, it seemed to be almost identical in this reality. It was a Japanese release, with English subtitles, meaning Penny would occasionally whisper key plot points to Amelia when the words in the subtitles were too advanced or numerous.

They had arrived at a scene, in which Lonely Blade had just discovered his brother had betrayed him (since coming back from the dead), and led him into a trap, forcing him to do battle with a dozen undead ninjas, in the employment of the evil janitor.

Part way through the fight scene, the group were distracted by a quiet sound from the front door. Turning around, they saw that a letter had been slid into the house, and its deliverer quickly vanishing towards the beach. Pausing the movie, Steven descended the stairs to his room and squinted through the door's screen.

"I think it's Jamie..." He said, confused, before picking up the letter. "Hey, it's for you, Andrew!"

Equally puzzled, Andrew took the letter, once Steven returned to his room, and sat on his bed, behind him. Tearing the letter open, Andrew began to read.

 _"My Dearest Andrew,_

 _Your display of incredible strength and even greater compassion and support, shook me to my very core. Though my meager acting career left me feeling vulnerable and weakened, you are my newfound strength! You are the gallant knight to my grateful prince! It pains me like a blade to my heart, that there exists a reality in which we are not soulmates, and cannot bear to allow my own fate to be so bleak! So, I implore you, with baited breath, that you join me for dinner at the Crab Shack, or maybe even just a casual hang at the Big Doughnut._

 _Yours forever,_

 _Jamie._

 _P.S. Steven has my number."_

Andrew gradually began to blush as his eyes descended the page. He realised Steven and Penny were reading over his shoulder, and he quickly scrunched the paper into a ball.

"Hey!" Penny critisised. "I'm trying to be nosey, over here!"

In contrast, Steven seemed embarrassed, seeming to realise he was at fault.

"I think Jamie just asked me out..." Andrew said, quietly.

Steven, Penny and Amelia all gasped excitedly. "Oooooh! Jamie _likes_ you!" Penny teased, in a sing-song voice, poking the side of her brother's head.

"Oh my god, you two would be such a cute couple!" Amelia said, sounding like she had never thought of it before, but it suddenly made sense.

"You said you knew him before." Steven reminded Andrew. "Was he ever like this?"

"No..." Andrew said. "I mean, I'd known him since we were kids... We flirted a bit for the last few years, but it would have been weird to go out, after all that time..."

"I guess this is what 'Jamie meeting you for the first time, as an adult' looks like." Steven noted.

At first, Andrew had been surprised, but when he thought about it, it was something he could have easily seen coming. Andrew and Jamie had always had chemistry, and without several years of casual friendship in the way, it was just like Jamie to dive in the deep end, by pouring his heart out.

"So, what are you gonna do?" Penny asked, sincerely.

Andrew stood up, and jumped from Steven's bedroom to the living room, and made his way over to the door. "Be right back."

Andrew raced along the beach, around the cliff and towards the boardwalk. He ran through the vacant, streetlamp-illuminated streets, towards the opposite side of town, where he knew Jamie lived, in a small, one-bedroom town house. Andrew caught up with Jamie, as they approached the town centre.

"Jamie!" Andrew called, as he slowed to a brisk walk.

"Andrew!" Jamie replied, after spinning around in shock.

"I read your letter..." Andrew said, in a positive-sounding tone, to avoid deflating Jamie's spirits. "It was very... poetic."

"So, you understand how I feel?" Jamie asked, optimistically. "You heard the longing call of my heart?"

Andrew pointed his palms at Jamie, his gems gleaming in the lamplight. "Jamie, calm down. Look, a lot of the people in this world are different from their counterparts, where I'm from, but I have a feeling you're not. My Jamie always got wrapped up in these cliché movie roles in his head, and he was hardly ever himself... It was funny, but that's not the kind of guy you want to date..."

Jamie looked at Andrew with wide, hurting eyes, as though he could start weeping, but notably, he didn't. "But... my feelings are real! I've loved you since..."

Andrew pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jamie, you don't have any feelings for me! I've said, like, five sentences to you, since we met, this afternoon. Literally the only thing you know about me... is how I look." Andrew's tone was soft and reassuring. "That's all love at first sight is. It's seeing someone good-looking, and thinking, 'Well, that's all I'll ever need in a relationship'. You're better than that."

Jamie seemed to be taking Andrew's words to heart, but he looked disappointed, nonetheless.

"But... for what it's worth... I think you're good-looking too." Andrew said, with a cheesy smile. "Dinner at the Crab Shack sounds great, as long as it's with Jamie..." Andrew took Jamie's note out of his pocket and unrolled it. "… not this guy."

Jamie looked up in shock, and blushed nervously. "R... really?"

After some affirmation from Andrew, Jamie grasped his mouth as he tried to refrain from grinning. Still confident he could put on a cool façade, Jamie span around.

"I'll... call you...?" Andrew offered, bemused by Jamie's outburst.

Jamie nodded enthusiastically and began walking away. Andrew smirked, and headed back towards the house. When he entered the door, Penny, Amelia and Steven were still watching Lonely Blade. Upon his return, Penny lay on the edge of Steven's room, with her head in her hands, kicking her legs playfully.

"Sooo? Are you and Jamie going out?" She asked eagerly.

Andrew climbed the stairs, and sat next to Steven, on his bed. "Let me answer that question with a question- Is it any of your business?" Andrew teased, jokingly. He stroked his chin for a moment. "You know what? I don't think it is."

Penny squinted at Andrew, inquisitively, as through trying to read his body language.

"Oh my god, you so are going out!" Penny almost shouted. "Is he your OTP? Are you in love?" She goaded.

"Love at first sight doesn't exist, Penny..." Andrew rolled his eyes.

"Right... right..." Penny nodded her head. "Except between you two lovebirds! Andrew and Jamie sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Andrew cocked an eyebrow, almost threateningly. "You know, just because I'm five years older than you, I hope you don't expect me to be any more mature, if you ever ask Connie out!"

Penny immediately went bright pink. Steven's eyes widened in shock. Amelia merely grinned childishly, at the drama unfolding.

"Ooooooh!" She remarked, goadingly.

Penny pressed her face against the floor of Steven's room. She should have known that teasing Andrew for his romantic life would mean war. Steven was the first to change the subject back to Andrew and Jamie, offering him Jamie's phone number. The group talked animatedly on the subject, until their movie ended, and they decided to go to bed.

* * *

 **Do American kids say that "sitting in a tree" rhyme? Is not, they should.**

 **Also, for anyone who's wondering, Andrew is asexual panromantic, and Penny is hella gay.**


	11. The Crystal Hybrid's Secret Weapon

Garnet and Andrew raced along the beach, shoulder to shoulder, towards a corrupted Gem they were engaging. The monster resembled an enormous octopus, with a bulbous, circular body, and long, narrow tentacles. The Crystal Gems had been relaxing in the house, when the creature had slithered out of the sea, and Garnet suggested that she and Andrew confront it together. It wasn't long, into the fight, when Andrew noticed a gem in between the monster's two massive, unblinking eyes, likening it to the reptile the hybrids had fought, on their first day in this reality.

"So, Garnet..." Andrew began, rolling underneath a tentacle and punching a second away from him. "You gonna tell me what, exactly, this thing is?"

Garnet leapt up to the monster's head and sent it slithering backwards along the beach, with a punch to the forehead. "It's a Gem... like us." She replied.

The two fusions convened on the sand, before the monster got its bearings and retaliated.

Andrew shot Garnet a confused look. "Erm... beg to differ..."

The octopus began to advance on the two, in retaliation, Andrew braced his fists, summoned his gauntlets, and had them swell to twice their normal size. Pointing at the corrupted Gem, Andrew launched his gauntlets and had them erupt into shards, as he had in his fight with Garnet. The monster roared in distress as it was bombarded.

Seizing her opportunity, Garnet raced across the sand, and grabbed hold of the tips of two of the creature's flailing tentacles. She leapt over its head and, spinning around in the air, sent it flying over her head and crashing on its back, into the beach. Timing his attack flawlessly with Garnet, Andrew leapt over her head and, seconds after the monster hit the sand, came crashing, gauntlet's first, into its abdomen. The creature's form exploded, and after the smoke cleared, Garnet was sending its bubbled gem to the temple.

"You seem unaccustomed to Gems like these." Garnet stated.

"That's because I am!" Andrew irritably replied. "In my universe, all Gems are humanoid, like us! Unless they're fusions with more than two arms or legs... And none of them act as animalistic as her!"

"Hmm..." Garnet seemed troubled by the news. "Tell me about how Gems came to your earth."

"The world was going to be made into a colony for Blue Diamond, but Rose Quartz started a rebellion. Blue didn't want the planet badly enough to fight a war for it, so she left the planet alone. Then the Crystal Gems just spread out around the earth, and got on with their lives."

"Our rebellion was more... violent." Garnet sighed.

Garnet explained how Earth was to be the first colony of Pink Diamond, meaning it had more sentimental value, and it was fought for more fiercely. Garnet told Andrew that the war had been won, and that the Diamond's final retaliation had corrupted the Crystal Gem army. If Andrew had pried for more information, Garnet might have mentioned that the war ended with Rose Quartz shattering Pink Diamond, but he didn't. Garnet was grateful for that. As collected as she tried to be, for the team, the war had left painful scars, even on her.

"And Rose could never help them?" Andrew asked.

"No..." Garnet sighed.

"So, all you can do for them is keep them in bubbles... so they don't hurt anyone... including themselves..." Andrew realised.

"For now..." Garnet said, a glimmer of hope in her voice.

"For now." Andrew echoed, thoughtfully.

Andrew's mind raced as he considered possible means of researching and studying corruption, in the hopes of deducing a cure. He and Garnet were barely afforded a few moments of silent contemplation, though, before the door to the house flew open, and Amelia ran onto the decking.

"Andrew! Garnet!" She shouted across the beach. "Penny says to come back, quick!"

The duo shared a confused look, before running back across the beach, and into the house, where Penny was standing in the centre of the floor, victoriously brandishing Peridot's arm, wearing it on her own forearm.

"Fear me, Earth clods!" She shouted, with a grin on her face. "For I am the mighty Peri... whoa..."

The fingers on Peridot's arm began to spin, and Penny was hoisted rapidly into the air, where she would have collided painfully with the ceiling, if Pearl hadn't quickly taken hold of her ankle.

"You fixed it?" Andrew remarked, more than impressed.

"Good job." Garnet added.

"Yeah..." Penny said, as she drifted left and right, before dropping clumsily to the floor. "I'm still trying to work out the interface... Our Peridot never let me have a go on hers... But it seems pretty self-explanatory."

"Are you able to figure out what she came to earth for?" Pearl asked, as she helped Penny to her feet.

"Let's see..." Penny said, staring into space, and feeling her way around the controls, inside the arm.

The cylindrical fingers floated around the arm like a shoal of fish, until, quite suddenly, they assumed their attack formation and fired. A bolt of energy flew at Andrew, who immediately summoned his gauntlet and, swinging his hand like a tennis racquet, sent the blast flying through the ceiling.

"Sorry..." Penny said, quietly.

After some more experimenting, which fortunately left everyone unharmed, Penny was able to access Peridot's data logs. Four of the fingers assumed a rectangular formation, and summoned a screen, between them, leaving Penny to navigate it with the fifth. She scrolled through various lines of what looked like incoherent scribbles.

"Let's see..." Penny said, thoughtfully.

"Can you read that!?" Steven asked, sounding astonished.

"Peridot and Rose taught me some key words." Penny explained. "A lot of their missions involve infiltrating Gem bases, and I always wanted to help." Before anyone could reply, Penny seemed to find what she was looking for. "Ooh here! Primary directive!"

The team gathered behind Penny excitedly, as she scrolled through lines of data, with the occasional illustration. Penny squinted at the text, occasionally muttering under her breath, until eventually, she sighed in resignation.

"I have no idea what any of this says. Look, this word here is repeated a bunch of times, throughout the file, what does that say?"

Pearl and Garnet crouched to Penny's height and examined the screen.

"I'm not entirely sure..." Pearl admitted. "The dialogue has changed significantly since I was last on Homeworld... Bundle? Collection?" She guessed.

"Cluster..." Garnet corrected.

"So, Peridot is here to cluster some things together?" Amelia asked, confusedly.

"No, it's definitely a noun, not a verb." Penny said, confidently. "It must be something that's already here."

She selected one of the images and magnified it. It depicted a 3D model of the earth, with a large, glowing, white ball, beneath the crust.

"What is that?" Steven asked.

"It must be some kind of weapon or artifact Homeworld Gems left here, during the war..." Pearl reasoned. "At any rate, I doubt we'll be able to determine much about it, without Peridot."

"Agreed." Garnet affirmed. "Our primary objective is still capturing Peridot, but now... we'll need to bring her in for questioning." She smiled at Andrew, glad they could now pursue Peridot with compatible interests.

"And luckily for us, we've got a surefire way of tracking her." Penny smirked.

With some more hazardous fiddling with the arm's controls, Penny summoned a display, which bore a 2D diagram of Peridot's collective limb enhancers. The other three were glowing red, and what were clearly error messages, flashed next to them.

"Hmm... I couldn't repair it fully, the range is probably quite limited, but if we can find out roughly where she is then..."

Suddenly, Penny was interrupted by a screeching sound from Steven's TV, which had suddenly burst into life. Steven was about to investigate, and turn it off, when the static on the screen was replaced with an image of Peridot.

"This is Peridot, transmitting on all frequencies from abandoned Crystal System colony planet, Earth..."

"Well... that was easy..." Penny noted.

-x-x-x-

With a distorted roar, a circular portal opened up, next to the Communication Hub's destroyed Warp Pad, and Lion leapt out, with Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl on his back, and the Hybrids pressed uncomfortably closely together, with their heads poking out of his mane. After the mutated feline came to a halt, the group collapsed off, and out of him, with a sigh of relief.

Looking up, the group saw the remaining intact pillars of the Communication Hub, left over from when Sugilite had destroyed it, precariously balanced on top of each other, like a house of cards, which apparently rendered it operational again.

"Peridot." Garnet bluntly reminded the group, after they had taken in the sight of the repaired hub.

Penny was still wearing Peridot's arm, and summoned the diagram of Peridot's other limb enhancers again. This time, the other three were flashing orange, and a clear line of data was displayed.

"I've got her!" Penny declared.

"Alright. You three go after her. We'll take care of the Communications Hub." Garnet ordered Andrew, Amelia and Penny.

"What about me?" Steven asked, seeming to feel left out.

Garnet grinned suggestively. "I think Pearl and I have someone we'd like you to meet."

The reaction from the group was instantaneous and varied. Pearl immediately beamed and covered her mouth with her hands, Steven stared in wondrous excitement, while Amethyst looked crestfallen, as though a dear partner had just dumped her. Slowly, Penny began to grow expectant, as she realised what was happening.

"Are you two going to form Sardonyx?" She asked, in excited disbelief. Rose had told her about her mother's flamboyant fusion, but Penny had never seen so much as a photograph.

"I think we have another volunteer to stay..." Andrew smirked. "We'll probably have a better chance of getting through to Peridot if we don't overwhelm her, anyway. Looks like it's you and me, Amelia."

After taking Peridot's arm from Penny, Andrew helped Amelia onto Lion's back, and was about to climb on behind her, when Amethyst called to them, "Wait... I'll come too. Looks like I'm not needed here..."

With Garnet and Pearl preparing for their fusion dance, and Steven and Penny watching in anticipation, it seemed like Andrew and Amelia were the only ones who noticed Amethyst's deflated tone. The three of them mounted Lion, and began to race in the direction of an arrow, hovering above Peridot's arm, guiding them to Peridot. Before they left earshot of the Hub, there was the chiming, whooshing sound of a multi-Gem fusion, followed by Sardonyx's dramatic greeting. Andrew and Amelia spared her a glance, and in doing so, noticed Amethyst staring glumly, at Andrew's back.

"Are you okay, Amethyst?" Amelia asked, craning her head around Andrew, prompting him to rest a hand on her shoulder, before she slid off Lion's back.

"What? Yeah... yeah, I'm fine..." Amethyst replied, unconvincingly.

"You can talk to us if something's bothering you..." Andrew reassured her. "If you want to." He elaborated.

Amethyst gave a long, thoughtful sigh. "Last time the Hub acted up it was me and Garnet, taking it down..." Amethyst confided. "But... it didn't go so well..."

Andrew chuckled. "Sugilite went berserk, and wouldn't unfuse?" He guessed.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Amethyst replied.

"You and I could fuse, before Amelia was born." Andrew explained. "We weren't as aggressive as the original Sugilite, according to Rose, but we could be pretty stubborn about unfusing..."

There was a moment of silence, save for the pattering of Lion's paws, against the dusty, barren ground. Andrew realised he'd gotten somewhat off track, by referring to his own Sugilite. "It must be difficult, feeling like Garnet doesn't trust you."

"Yeah..." Amethyst sighed.

"I'm sure Garnet still appreciates you AND Sugilite!" Amelia offered. "There's always a time for mindless brutality, just..." Amelia trailed off, and squinted ahead, before reacting in alarm. "Lion, look out!"

Lion leapt to the side, avoiding a burst of green energy, hurtling at him. Up ahead, the group could see Peridot, frantically sprinting through the desert, having just noticed the pursuing team. Andrew leapt off Lion's back, and began effortlessly running alongside him.

"Peridot!" Andrew bellowed after her. "Just stop for a second and talk to us!"

Peridot continued running, seeming to struggle to choose between using her one remaining hand to fly or shoot, as she alternated between the two. Amethyst followed Andrew's example and dismounted Lion, before rolling into a ball, and dashing across the desert, towards her quarry.

With her eyes on Amethyst, Peridot assumed her flight function and lifted safely into the air, without noticing Andrew train his gauntlet on her. Before firing, Andrew opened his fist, as though to catch a ball, and his gauntlet rocketed through the air, before it snapped shut around Peridot's fingers, snatching them from her hand, before falling lifelessly to the ground, with Peridot falling helplessly after them. As soon as she stood up, Peridot was ensnared by a whip, which Amethyst threw at her.

"Crystal Gems or no, why can't you dull pebbles just leave me alone!?" Peridot demanded, desperately.

"Because we're your friends, Peridot!" Andrew insisted.

"Why do you keep saying that!?" Peridot cried, squeezing her eyes shut in frustration. "I've never even met you fleshy clods before!"

"It's... complicated..." Andrew sighed. He quickly changed the subject, before he was forced to explain his full backstory to Peridot. "Last time we met, you said I wouldn't want to help you if this planet is my home." He reminded her. "If you were just going to drain the planet's resources, you wouldn't be this desperate to leave." Andrew pointed at the ruins of the Communication Hub, just visible in the distance. "I think you came here to check up on a weapon which is endangering the earth, and you!"

Peridot stared resentfully at her stolen arm, in Andrew's hand. "The information on those drives is classified!" She hissed.

"Dude, just tell us what the Cluster is, before it kills us all!" Amethyst angrily insisted.

"You'll just have to disrupt me! Because I'll never betray Yellow Diamond!" Peridot snapped.

Andrew sighed reluctantly, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Peridot, you're putting me in a hell of a position here. I really didn't want to have to stoop to this..."

Amethyst and Peridot looked to Andrew, curiously, but with varying degrees of terror.

"Amelia... It's all you." Andrew said, without turning around.

Amelia climbed down from Lion, and made her way over to Peridot. The latter sat upright, and shuffled backwards, nervously.

"What is this? Are you a warrior? Some, horrifically defective Aquamarine?" She demanded, anxiously.

Amelia came to a stop, before Peridot, where she stared at her, wordlessly, her pupils dilating to inhuman proportions.

"Wh... why are you staring at me like that?" Peridot asked, confused and alarmed, in equal parts.

Amelia's bottom lip quivered and she sniveled as though staving off tears.

"What is this...?" Peridot cried, clearly suffering the intended effect.

Still Amelia didn't say a word. Tears began to well in the corners of her eyes.

"It's not my fault your world is going to be destroyed!" Peridot insisted, as though desperate to absolve herself in Amelia's eyes. "Stop looking at me like that!"

Peridot also began to tear up, trying and failing to break eye contact with Amelia.

"Alright! Alright I'll help you! Just stop your emotional bombardment!" Peridot collapsed to her side, and openly wept.

Andrew grinned triumphantly and stood at Amelia's side, offering his fist out to her. Amelia smiled and reciprocated the gesture.

"You're scary, you know that?" He said.

"Yeah, I know." Amelia replied.


	12. Home Sweet Home

**Hey readers, sorry for the slow update. I've been pretty distracted lately, and I've been trying to get back to writing my latest book, so I might not update for a while after this. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

The team reunited at the destroyed Communication Hub, with a reluctant Peridot in tow. The Homeworld Gem was even more alienated, when she discovered the path back to the temple involved riding their mutated lion. Once they were home, the Crystal Gems took a seat on and around the sofa, while Peridot spoke. She paced back and forth, while making adjustments to her arm, which had been returned to her.

"So... because of the emotional manipulation I've been subjected to... it seems I've no choice but to agree to an... ALLIANCE... with you Crystal Gems..." Peridot sneered, reluctantly.

Peridot shook her arm back and forth and irritably jabbed at the screen it was projecting. "What did you DO to this thing?" She angrily demanded, from no one in particular. "It's running like an Era 1 data drive!"

"A lot of the components were fried." Penny explained. "I had to replace the processor with some old earth tech."

Peridot stared at Penny, in unblinking astonishment. "You integrated Era 2 Gem Tech with...?" She began. Clearly, she was incredibly impressed, but caught herself, before she admitted it. "Well... it's sufficient for our purposes."

Peridot's screen expanded, assuming the size of a chalk board, displaying an image of the earth, with the Cluster highlighted, resting beneath the surface.

"Buried in this planet's crust, is an enormous Cluster of broken Gem shards, unwillingly fused together." Peridot began.

The group all reacted differently, Garnet's reaction was the most severe. She gasped and ground her teeth together in distress.

"I was sent here to check on its progress from the terminals in the Prime Kindergarten. Given my current status, I'm... displeased... to report that it's developing nicely. At an indeterminate point between now and three rotations of this planet's moon, the Cluster will take form, and destroy the earth, and all of us with it, after which the Diamonds will take control of it, and use it as a weapon."

On Peridot's screen, the Cluster took form, tearing the earth apart as it expanded, ultimately taking the form of a gigantic, winged serpent. After the initial shock had passed, Pearl rose to her feet and joined Peridot at the screen.

"Well needless to say, we'll need to put a stop to this as soon as possible, we'll need to..."

"Yes, obviously." Peridot interrupted, looking down her nose at Pearl. "We can start by disassembling the machinery in this domicile. If earth tech can make my arm operational, then there's a slim chance it can be used to create a drill we can use to stop the cluster."

Before anyone could object, Peridot had her fingers shoot over to the kitchen and tear the microwave from the wall, before ripping the casing away, so Peridot could examine its interior. The fingers from her other hand, flew in the other direction, before ravaging Steven's TV.

"Wait, stop!" Steven pleaded. "I know where we can find a bunch of stuff to destroy, that I DON'T need, in my house!"

Amethyst snorted. "Classic Steven."

Steven led the group over the Warp Pad. Andrew, Penny and Amelia would have been the last to get on, but Garnet turned to face them before they did.

"Wait." She instructed them. "This project will take us several weeks. While we're away, corrupted Gems will still be drawn to the temple, and Beach City will be vulnerable."

Andrew nodded in approval. Garnet wasn't wrong. "We'll stay here and protect the town."

"But... won't we need Penny's help?" Steven asked.

Penny cringed humbly. "My forte is mostly small gadgets." She admitted. "I'll help program the drill once you're done building, but I don't think I'll be able to help much until then."

With everyone in agreement, the Warp Pad burst into life, and the Hybrids were left with the house to themselves.

-x-x-x-

Having the original Crystal Gems (and Steven) in their lives had been daunting for the hybrids at first, but, having adjusted, it felt strange for the three of them to be alone again. Andrew contacted Greg and made plans to finalise the extension on the house, once the car wash closed, but until then, the children found themselves uncertain of what to do with themselves.

"It's too bad Peridot had to go, right after we get her to join our team..." Amelia sighed, lying on her back, on the sofa. "I was looking forward to having her back..."

Andrew sat on the floor, with his elbows on the coffee table, and his head in his hands. "Once they've taken care of the Cluster, we can have a Camp Pining Hearts marathon. You remember how our Peridot was, when she first got into the show?"

Penny and Amelia giggled. They had always been much bigger fans of the show than Andrew, but even their love for Camp Pining Hearts paled in comparison to Peridot's obsession. She had ideal ships for almost every character, and would lose all control of her emotions, whenever anyone questioned one of them. The hybrids smiled fondly, thinking of their CPH binge sessions with Peridot, before dull silence resumed once more.

"Hey! I know what we can do!" Penny said, suddenly, startling her siblings, slightly. "I can't believe we haven't tried this yet!"

Penny leapt to her feet and raced over to the temple door. Andrew and Amelia stood behind her, curiously. When she reached the door, Penny closed her eyes, and the gem on her forehead glowed, brightly. On the door, the white circle on the upper right point of the star glowed in response. The three waited for Penny's door to open, with its vertical division, and semicircle around the door's star insignia, but several seconds passed, without it arriving.

From within the temple, a deep, whirring, groaning sound came, like the roar of some gigantic creature, in an infinitely echoing cave.

"That doesn't sound good..." Andrew whispered, ominously.

Without warning, Andrew and Amelia's gems began to glow too, as did their corresponding marks on the temple door. With a bright glow and accompanying chime, the star on the door expanded, and a second star, the former size of the original, swam into view, with all four lower points bearing the corresponding icons. When the transformation was complete, the temple door's new icon bore two overlapping stars, with a pair of red, blue, white and purple circles on four points, and a large, pink one at the very top.

"Nine gems..." Andrew noted, looking at his palms.

Without looking around, Penny activated her gem once more, and her door in the temple slid open immediately, after the inner Pearl icon illuminated in response. The hybrids raced inside and gaped in astonishment at what they saw.

"It's... my mom's room..." Penny gasped.

On the other side of the temple door, was a vast, circular space, containing a series of pillars, of varying heights and widths, made of gleaming, black marble. The only difference, was the ankle-deep water, trickling across the floor.

"How do you know it's not the other Pearl's room?" Amelia suggested. "I mean, yours wasn't this wet..."

Penny frowned, clearly seeing Amelia's point, until her expression announced the arrival of an idea. Penny leapt gracefully to the tallest marble column, where she flourished her hand, conjuring a series of bladed weapons, which hovered in a circle around her. She gasped triumphantly, before seizing a sword with a curved, blue blade, and returning to her siblings with it.

"Look! Look here!" She enthusiastically invited them. "This sword has a chip on it, from when I first practiced with it! That's proof!"

'Practice' was a generous way of putting it. When Penny was 10, she had first managed to open her mother's door, and almost immediately, she had taken hold of one of her swords, and began swinging it back and forth, formlessly, before striking one of the pillars with it.

"Amazing..." Andrew commented. "That means we've had copies of the data for our rooms, stored in our gems, this whole time!"

The hybrids set out exploring. The first thing they discovered, was that the temple still featured its original rooms (much to their relief). Walking against the flow of the water in Penny's room, they found what they assumed to be Pearl's room. The layout was exactly the same as Penny's, except that the pillars were made of water, rather than marble, and there were no walls, instead, the room simply faded away into darkness.

Sliding down one of the funnels of water, and laughing excitedly as they did, the group found themselves in Amethyst's room. Just like Amelia's, Amethyst's room featured mountains upon mountains of miscellaneous objects and trinkets, contained within a sparkling, crystal cave. Amelia's possessions were contained within the same cavern, and were very similar, save for a cleared out space of the cave, where she had a sofa, coffee table and television. In their last reality, when Amelia had fallings out with her siblings, she would enter her room (with Rose or Peridot's help) to get some space from them.

Having had control of his room for the longest, Andrew had had the most time to decorate, and make his room personal to him. At the lowest part of the temple, at the bottom of a set of spiraling stairs, a corridor turned left and right, leading to Andrew and Garnet's rooms. Garnet's room (or the Burning Room) was spacious and circular, with a cauldron of bubbling liquid in the centre, and hundreds of bubbled gems filling the ceiling. Andrew's had exactly the same layout, but no gems. His room was furnished with a comfortable-looking futon, an old-fashioned stereo, and a workout bench, and the walls were decorated with posters paying tribute to franchises like Lonely Blade.

Once they had explored to their heart's content, the children collapsed contentedly on Amelia's sofa.

"I'm glad we were able to bring all of our gem stuff with us." Penny said. "I never would have guessed that all of this was stored in here..." She reached up to her gem.

"Our gems are probably acting as data drives, to the Crystal Heart's computer." Andrew theorised. "Our gems stored compressed copies of our rooms, ready to be uploaded to a new temple. Rose and Peridot probably still have copies of our rooms back home."

The group took a moment to appreciate their newfound information. Before the conversation resumed, the group noticed a quiet, rumbling sound, which was followed a subtle tremble, the likes of which could be caused by an approaching freight train. Amelia was about to comment on it, when Andrew adopted a look of panic and alarm. Seizing his sisters by their waists, Andrew leapt clear of the sofa, just before it was destroyed from beneath, by the arrival of a burrowing, corrupted Gem.

"My sofa!" Amelia cried in protest.

The Gem's body was comprised mostly of an enormous, dark blue flower, the petals of which snapped like a hungry mouth, and it slithered across the ground, with six vine-like appendages. Andrew put his sisters down, and he and Penny quickly summoned their weapons. Penny lifted her quarterstaff defensively, as the creature attacked but its monstrous limb ensnared Penny's weapon, before hurling it upwards, lifting Penny with it.

Letting go of her weapon, Penny flew above the creature, where she bombarded it with pulses of light she cast from the palms of her hands. The creature roared its disapproval and slithered backwards, before turning its head downwards and tunneling back into the ground. Before it escaped, Andrew raced forwards, and grabbed hold of the creature's final limb, as it was about to vanish down its hole, and strenuously dragged the creature back to the surface.

Without warning, the monster stopped resisting and charged at Andrew, throwing him off guard as he had been pulling on it, and immediately trampled over him, charging at Amelia.

"Amelia, look out!" Penny shrieked, summoning her weapon and charging to her sister's aid.

Amelia scrambled backwards in terror. As her heart raced anxiously, the light of her gem penetrated her purple jumper. Amelia squeezed her eyes shut and thrust her hands forwards, defensively. With a pulse of light, two objects propelled themselves from her gem, glowing purple and spinning too fast to identify. Each collided with the monster's limbs, at which point they were bound helplessly together, forcing the corrupted Gem to fall, face first on the stoney floor, sliding to a halt, just short of the youngest hybrid.

With a desperate battle cry, Penny and Andrew leapt into the air above the creature, and violently fell upon it, weapons first. The resulting explosion of smoke swallowed the team, and when it faded, Andrew was bubbling the creature's gem, and Penny was inspecting the manifestation Amelia had thrown at it. They were lengths of purple rope, like Amethyst's whips, except with black, circular weights at each end.

"Amelia!" Penny cried, proudly. "You summoned your weapon!"

"What kind of whips are these...?" Amelia asked, curiously. As she picked her weapons up, they vanished, with a sparkle of purple light.

"They're bolas, like hunters use!" Penny excitedly informed her. "If you keep training you can just floor anyone who crosses us!"

With an excited grin, Amelia attempted to mimic the action she had performed, before summoning her weapons, pushing her hands in front of her, but with no effect.

Andrew grinned and ruffled Amelia's hair. "I think we'll have plenty to do, while the others are away."


	13. Party Planners

**Hey guys, sorry for the long hiatus (what is this? Real Steven Universe? Amirite?) Hopefully long-time readers were still waiting and if not, people don't mind catching up, but if not I'm having fun writing them, so whatevvs. I'm still working on my book, but I'll try to speed up the updates.**

* * *

"Penny! In your own time!" Andrew grunted, irritably.

The Crystal Hybrids had had the beach house to themselves, for two days, before their first mission to protect Beach City had arisen. While Andrew and Jamie had been lying on the beach and talking, a monstrous corrupted Gem had descended from the heavens. It was turquoise, and resembled a cross between an eagle and a pterodactyl, with a menacing beak, and leathery, wings, ending with claws.

While Jamie and Amelia took shelter inside the house, Andrew and Penny engaged the creature and, after a brief skirmish, Andrew had been able to wrap his arms around the Gem's beak, and wrestled it to submission, while Penny braced her quarterstaff in a throwing position.

"I'd really rather not impale you...!" Penny complained, as the Gem dragged Andrew back and forth along the sand, putting him between itself and Penny.

Before Penny found her opening, the corruption gave a mighty flap of its wings, sending the two hybrids flying backwards, across the sand, landing in a heap. With a shrill cry, the corruption turned, and began to climb the cliff, the temple was built into, piercing the stone with its wicked claws.

As she and Andrew jumped to their feet, Penny summoned her weapon again, and hurled it at the creature, striking its hand, moments before it went to shift its weight, causing it to stumble, and hang precariously from the cliff face by its hind claws. Andrew raced up the wall of the cliff like a ninja, leaping over the Gem, and sending it plummeting back to the sand with a punch to the torso.

Before it could get up, Penny leapt onto the corruption's chest, and plunged a newly-summoned quarterstaff into it, like a sacrificial blade, dispersing its body, leaving its square, orange gem to be sent to the temple.

The beach house door opened, and Jamie and Amelia emerged.

"My hero!" Jamie cried, dramatically, as he ran towards Andrew, his arms braced for a hug. "Such heroism! Such might! You were a sight to behold!"

Andrew grinned at Jamie's theatricality, and hugged him back.

Penny put her hands on her hips and frowned, irritably. "And what did I do? Hold Andrew's coat?"

Jamie grinned sheepishly. "Yes... You were very impressive too." He added. "At any rate, as I was saying before we were so _ferociously_ interrupted, Andrew, would you permit me to treat you to lunch at Fish Stew Pizza?"

"Yeah, sounds good." Andrew smiled. "Hey, Penny, aren't you meeting Connie later? Why don't we make it a double date?"

Penny blushed furiously, and scowled at her brother. "Me and Connie aren't dating...!" She snapped, just managing to bite her tongue, before she said 'yet'.

"What about me? I don't have a date!" Amelia complained. "I'm not madly in love with anyone, like Penny is." She grinned childishly at Penny's frustration.

"That's okay Amelia, you can be the fifth wheel. That's an important part of any date." Andrew smiled.

Content with their plan, the four of them made their way into town, greeted Connie at the bus stop, and headed to Fish Stew Pizza for lunch. While the five of them waited for their food, they talked about how the hybrids were settling into their new lives, which led to a discussion on corrupted Gems, and the hybrids' need to train more, which, in turn, lead to Pennie challenging Andrew to an arm-wrestling contest.

Penny had often butted horns with Andrew in their last world, and now that they were more comfortable in their new home, it seemed like time for sibling rivalry to set back in. When he was younger, Andrew had delighted in defeating Penny at arm wrestling instantly, but now he found it more fun to tease her for the fact that, to this day, she had never been able to move his arm, even an inch.

Andrew sat with his elbow on the table, and smirked, while Penny threw her entire weight against his arm, to no avail, even after managing to enlist Connie and Amelia's help.

"So, have you guys heard from Steven and the Gems?" Connie asked, while still pulling on Andrew's hand.

"No, but I expect they're really busy with the Cluster drill." Andrew answered. "They've only been gone for two days, we didn't want to bother them."

"Yeah, me too..." Connie said, in an understanding tone. "Steven's sent me a few texts, but I'm trying not to distract him."

From behind the counter, Kiki made her way over to the table, holding the pizza they had ordered, in one hand. She looked at the three-versus-one arm wrestling match in mild amusement.

"You guys want your pizza, or should I come back when all this is done?" She smirked.

"No, I think we're ready." Andrew replied, with a grin.

Andrew placed his fist down on the table, utterly oblivious to the resistance Penny, Amelia and Connie presented, who reacted with varying degrees of surprise and frustration. After thanking Kiki, the group began to eat, while continuing their conversation.

"So, what's this Steven is doing?" Jamie asked, after swallowing his first mouthful. "Not that I'd complain about seeing more of Andrew, but I have noticed it wasn't him collecting his mail these past days."

"He and the Gems are building a drill to destroy a geoweapon in the earth's crust, before it destroys the planet." Amelia explained, without returning Jamie's courtesy of not talking with her mouthful.

"Oh... well that's reassuring." Jamie said, sincerely.

"You guys are going to visit him on Friday though, right?" Connie asked.

The hybrids exchanged looks of surprise and confusion. Eventually, Penny turned to Connie. "How did you... I mean... No? Why?"

Connie was taken aback by Penny's reaction, but eventually answered. "It's Steven's birthday."

"What!?" Amelia immediately reacted.

"That's Penny's birthday!" Andrew explained to Connie and Jamie.

"Wha... really?" Connie was astounded. "Do you think there's some kind of multiversal connection between all Universe hybrid children, aligning their lives!?" She asked, looking around the table, wide-eyed.

"I mean... it could just be a coincidence, but maybe." Andrew said.

"Why didn't he tell us...?" Penny said, sounding slightly hurt.

"He probably just didn't want you to make a big deal of it, because you don't know him that well yet." Connie suggested. "I mean, why didn't you tell Steven about your birthday?"

Penny nodded her head in acceptance. "Yeah, same reason... I'm gonna call him and see what he wants to do."

Penny pulled her phone out of her pocket and left the restaurant.

"So, what were you guys GOING to do for Penny's birthday?" Connie asked.

"We haven't really talked about it." Andrew admitted. "Probably just do the usual cake and presents thing, with the three of us, but if it's Steven's birthday too, then Penny might not be so uncomfortable celebrating with everyone."

"Did you guys do anything special for birthdays in your last universe?" Connie asked.

Andrew smiled fondly. "Our Peridot used to make giant, killer robots, for my birthday, and let me destroy them for training."

"On my birthdays, Rose let me play in her room." Amelia added. "I'm not normally allowed in there..."

"And Penny's birthday is the only day of the year when she's allowed to work on Peridot's spaceship." Andrew finished. "How about you guys?" He asked Jamie and Connie.

Jamie and Connie seemed awkward, as though they thought their birthday traditions bland, by comparison.

"My... parents buy me books I want..." Connie said.

"Broadway musicals in Empire City..." Jamie added.

The restaurant door opened, and Penny walked back in, and took her seat next to Connie. "Steven was _very_ excited." She said, smiling and rolling her eyes. "He insisted we visit the barn and celebrate our birthdays together, so I said we would."

"Oh my gosh! It'll be so fun to have everyone together for a party!" Connie said, happily.

"And we'll get to see Peridot!" Amelia added.

The group continued to talk animatedly, about the upcoming party, much to Penny's embarrassment. Once they finished eating, they left the restaurant for the boardwalk.

"Well, we may have to make some preparations if we have a big party coming up." Andrew said, while he looked at his phone, and a text exchange between himself and Greg. "Penny, why don't you and Amelia go home, while we do some shopping?"

Penny rolled her eyes. "Alright, but I still don't want everyone making a huge deal about it."

"No promises!" Andrew called, as he, Connie and Jamie made their way into town.


	14. A Very Special Birthday

With a dramatic beam of light, the warp pad, by the Demayo family barn burst into life, and Penny and Amelia appeared. Andrew had been invited to the barn by Garnet, the previous night, so that he might hear the story of how Ruby and Sapphire had met. Garnet had been planning to tell Steven the story, on his birthday, ever since he prematurely discovered her nature, as a fusion, not long before the hybrids' arrival. After Steven went back to sleep, Andrew stayed up, caught up with Peridot, and loaned his strength to the drill construction project, which was coming along nicely.

"Penny!" Andrew called, excitedly. He ran towards his sisters, dropped to his knees, so he was at eye-level with Penny, and pulled her into a hug. "Happy birthday!"

"Thanks Andrew." Penny replied, somewhat winded, but hugging her brother back, anyway.

"Hey Penny! Hey Amelia!" Steven called from the barn.

Steven was already wearing his birthday cape and crown, and behind him, Greg was helping Connie unload her belongings from the van.

"Hey there schtu-ball!" Greg greeted, as the hybrids made their way over from the Warp Pad. "Second schtu-ball..." He specified, thoughtfully stroking his beard. "TWO-BALL, one might even say!"

"Hey... dad..." Penny said, experimentally. Immediately after finding out who Penny was, Greg had invited her to call him 'dad' once she was comfortable doing so, but this was the first time she took him up on his offer.

Greg seemed to struggle for a moment, containing his joy, before cordially clearing his throat. "Now Penny, I know the Greg in your old universe wasn't there for all your birthdays, but the Universes in _this_ universe wouldn't dream of letting a birthday go by without making a big deal about it!" Greg held an arm out to Steven, in demonstration. "You may have noticed the lavish costume your twin brother has on..."

"I had..." Penny noted, smirking at Greg's formal attitude. "It's very fetching." She added, with a hint of sarcasm.

"It's my birthday costume! My dad made it for me when I was a baby, so we'd know who the birthday king is!" Steven excitedly stated.

"But this year, we have _two_ birthday monarchs!" Greg went on, walking backwards towards a large pile of birthday paraphernalia, and reaching behind him for something. "Aaaaand... TWO BIRTHDAY COSTUMES!"

With a flourish, Greg produced an identical cape and crown, save for a blue colour scheme, rather than red.

"Haha, what!?" Penny gasped, in joyous astonishment. "You made that for me?" Every time she met Greg, she was newly astonished by how different he was from her own. Even though she thought the costume was ridiculous, it warmed her heart, that she had a dad who had taken the time to make it for her.

Penny eagerly put the cape and crown on, and stood proudly next to Steven, while the Gems wished them both a happy birthday.

Connie, who had been removing her belongings from Greg's van, ran over, and threw her hands into the air, dramatically. "All hail the birthday king and queen!" She cheered, loudly.

While the group laughed and cheered their approval, Greg retrieved a photo album from his van, and sat down on the grass, with Steven, Penny, and Connie.

"So, let's take a look down Memory Lane, before we start making room for group pictures in this bad boy!"

In the album, were pictures of Greg and Steven, on each of the latter's birthdays. As they approached the end of the album, one thing was immediately clear.

"Wow... Steven hasn't aged at all in, like, five years." Penny pointed out.

"Is that... normal?" Connie asked, uncertainly.

"Well... I'm pretty sure I aged more consistently than that." Penny said. "But now that you mention it, I think Amelia's looked more or less the same, since she was three."

"How about Andrew?" Greg asked, curiously.

Andrew had been deep in discussion with Garnet, regarding the drill project, and working with Peridot, and Garnet had just finished recapping the story of Peridot and Pearl's robot battle, much to Andrew's amusement. Andrew turned around, at the sound of his name.

"What's up?" He asked, walking over to the group.

"Did you age like a normal human?" Connie asked.

"Not really..." Andrew replied, thinking back. "I remember Rose telling me I was basically a toddler, up until I was five, then Penny was born, and I had a growth spurt."

"Because you felt like a big brother!" Steven realised. "A while ago, I threw a bunch of birthday parties for the Gems, and I started to get older, because that's how I felt!"

"That would actually explain a lot..." Andrew agreed. "Plus, it would explain why Amelia's been small for so long, since she's the baby sister."

"But... does that mean none of you will ever age again?" Connie asked, worriedly.

"I... don't know." Penny admitted. "I guess even with four hybrids here, we don't really know how hybrid aging works... But if we have any say in it, I'd say Andrew and I are all set for aging. I mean, Andrew's tall enough to make full use of his strength, and if I get any bigger, I probably won't be as fast or agile..."

"But... What if you fell in love with a human?" Connie gently pointed out. "They'd keep aging! I mean, Andrew, what will you look like, when Jamie's fifty?"

Andrew seemed to spend a few moments formulating an answer, before giving up, and uttering a quiet, "Oh..."

Andrew, Penny and Steven all looked troubled, as they thought about the topic Connie had brought up, seemingly for the first time.

Connie sighed. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to bum everyone out..."

"Hey, that's okay! We can still pick this party up again!" Greg quickly said. "How about we get some tunes going, and open some presents?"

With some unenthusiastic confirmation from Steven and Penny, Garnet put one of Greg's records onto a record player, in the van, and Pearl and Amethyst produced an enormous cookie cake, with two candles in the shape of the number 14. Everyone else gathered an assortment of presents.

Connie had gotten a new shirt for Steven, and a box set of Spirit Morph books for Penny. Greg had gotten both hybrids a collection of video games he knew they'd both enjoy. Andrew and Amelia had gotten Penny a new, bronze sword, and Steven a collection of Lonely Blade manga.

The party picked up and, just as Greg hoped, thoughts of Connie's foreboding prophecy were mostly forgotten. The group played badminton, ate cake, and danced to some of Greg's favourite, old songs. The hybrids even persuaded Peridot to take a break from the drill, and play a game of hide-and-seek with them, which she proved terrible at, due to her constant complaining about the game's logical futility.

As the sun was beginning to set, Garnet put a slow song on the record player, and Pearl and Amethyst, and Andrew and Amelia took to the dance floor. Steven and Penny turned to Connie at the same time, but Penny spoke moments before her brother got a word out.

"Hey Connie, would you like to dance?" She asked.

"Sure!" Connie replied, but she had noticed that Steven had been about to speak, and correctly guessed he was about to ask the same thing. "Can... I dance with you next, Steven?" She asked, sympathetically.

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Steven agreed, with a note of disappointment in his voice.

While Steven sat in the van with his dad and Garnet, Penny and Connie took to the dance floor, and slowly swayed to the music, with their hands on each other's shoulders.

"Connie..." Penny nervously began. "I'm sorry I never thought about what you said before. I never thought about the future when I was with my last Connie... and our relationship just ended when I left, without even saying goodbye..."

Connie noticed tears welling in Penny's eyes, and pulled her closer, for a hug.

"I know she's glad you're okay."

"But... what if I do the same thing to you...?" Penny sniffed. "What if I'm still a kid, when you're fifty years old?"

"Then we'll still be friends." Connie insisted. "We'll both change as we get older in one way or another, even if you don't age like I do, it won't change how much I care about you and Steven."

"Thanks Connie..." Penny replied, reciprocating her hug.

While Steven took his turn, dancing with Connie, Penny sat on a small, folding table, watching the sun, as it set over the sea. Connie's words were soothing, but they sat on top of the cauldron of bubbling emotions, that this jarring birthday had become.

Penny jumped slightly, as she was pulled from her thoughts, by Peridot's voice. "Penny. If I might have a moment of your time?"

"What's up Peridot?" Penny greeted.

"Pearl explained the importance of these birth anniversary rituals, and told me not to bother anyone with talk of the drill, but I assume you're sitting here doing nothing, because you've finally realised how pointless this celebration is, and therefore won't mind lending your assistance."

Penny smirked at Peridot's unique speech pattern. "Sure, what do you need?"

Peridot lead Penny to the other side of the barn, where the drill stood, the latter having to jog slightly, to keep up with Peridot's long stride, in her limb enhancers. The drill was nearing completion, with a mostly intact, spherical cockpit, and a drill head pointing readily at the ground. The whole thing was held up by a sturdy, wooden frame.

"I wanted to run some basic simulations, but the processors keep overheating. This is hardly something I want to happen when it's drilling towards the Cluster, saving our lives..." Peridot said.

"Yeah, that sounds bad." Penny said, as she placed her foot on Peridot's interlaced fingers, and allowed herself to be hoisted into the drill's open cockpit. "It might be as simple as just throwing a bunch more processors in there, but if nothing else, we can just jury rig some coolant dispensers."

"Oh right, I just remembered, you'll need me to disengage the safety." Peridot summoned one of her screens and sniggered to herself. "Let me tell you, I had a good reason for installing..."

"What? The safety?" Penny interrupted, from the cockpit. "Yeah, I already disengaged that. Why do you need that when it's not even up to the testing stage yet?"

"You did what!?" Peridot shrieked, both impressed and concerned.

Before Penny could question the green Gem's reaction, she found out exactly why a safety had been installed. With the slightest input from Penny, the drill immediately burst into life, at full power. The drill head span with such force that the entire vehicle rattled, throwing Penny to the floor, before she could disengage it. The frame fell apart and the drill fell forwards, forcing Peridot to dive out of the way, before it crushed her.

With a tidal wave of dirt, the drill ploughed forwards, tearing through the ground, and putting a second hole into the side of the barn, before exploding out of the doors, onto the dancefloor beyond. Inside the drill, desperately trying to get her bearings, Penny saw Steven and Connie, on the drill's forward (or downward, as it should have been) display, as they stood, like startled deer in headlights, in the drill's path.

Penny knew that, even if she stopped the drill immediately, the forward momentum would still cause it to crush her friends. Moving and thinking as fast as she could, Penny leapt out of the drill's open door, grabbed the drill's base and, pulling with all of her might, threw herself into the drill's path, hoping to be able to tackle her friends aside.

Penny flew like a dart, wrapping her arms around the stunned Steven and Connie's shoulders, but as she did, her gem began to gleam and glare of its own accord, the piercing white light, flooding the field, forcing the party-goers to shield their eyes.

The drill head was met by the tip of an enormous, snow-white parasol, and with a flourish, the vehicle was sent spinning into the air, like it had the weight of a tennis ball, before it fell, cockpit first, into three awaiting hands.

If the party had been surprised by the unleashing of the drill, it was nothing compared to the stunned silence that followed. While most of the Gems, and Greg simply gaped in disbelief, Garnet and Andrew covered their mouths, to stifle massive, involuntary grins they wore.

Where Steven, Connie and Penny once stood, there was now a ten-foot-tall fusion, with mocha skin, and flowing, silver hair, which reached their knees. They wore a breezy, yellow dress, under Steven's red t-shirt with the Crystal Gems' star, and a practical pair of black boots. Unlike Stevonnie, the new fusion exceeded the common number of limbs for a human, and had four, slender arms, holding the drill with three of them, and with the fourth, brandishing a gleaming, white parasol, with the Rose Quartz insignia on it.

After overcoming her shock, Peridot remotely disengaged the drill, from her screens, allowing the fusion to put it down. While the group inched closer, awaiting the fusion's first words, the fusion ran their hands over their body, and took handfuls of their silky, water-like hair.

The fusion sniggered softly, before breaking out into an excited laugh. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MILKY QUARTZ!" They cried.

Milky remained fused for the remainder of the party, danced energetically, and made use of their additional limbs to bring everyone together for a hug, and a group photo. Late into the night, long after Andrew and Amethyst had taken Amelia home, Milky lay on the roof of the barn, resting their head in their hands and gazing at the tapestry of stars overhead.

"Those three will be okay..." Milky sighed to themself. The second they had fused, Steven, Connie and Penny's worries about the future, had melted away. "Whatever happens to them in the future... they'll always have me."


	15. Beach Party

**Sorry again for the hiatus, hopefully, people are still reading. I was kinda motivated into action by that amazing reveal the other day! Although I don't have a plan for how it'll affect the story just yet, if at all.**

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The Crystal Hybrids were enjoying a day to themselves. Although the expansion to the house was complete, the glorious sunlight and warm breeze made the children reluctant to stay indoors. Andrew sat cross-legged on the beach, meditating, while close by, Penny and Amelia were making a series of sandcastles. Since Penny and Steven's birthday, the Hybrids were feeling slightly better about their aging rates, and, with some effort, had put it behind them.

Andrew had been meditating for almost half an hour, when his eyes shot open, he gasped loudly, and he almost fell over backwards.

"Andrew? You okay?" Penny called over.

Andrew shot to his feet and briskly approached his sisters. "We have to get off the beach." He said, urgently.

"You mean... go inside?" Amelia asked, sounding fearful and alarmed.

"I mean go into town or... to the barn. Something bad is coming, I can sense it."

Before the ominous conversation could continue, the tide drew back unnaturally far, before charging across the beach, like an advancing army, soaking the hybrids, and prompting Penny to wrap her arms around Amelia's shoulders, lest she get pulled towards the sea, as it drew back one more.

Looking towards the ocean, the hybrids saw the waves, churning back and forth, like a miniature storm, which was soon followed by a colossal turquoise hand thrusting out of the water, resisting a thick, clear manacle, seemingly made of water.

To the hybrids' astonishment and intimidation, a gargantuan Gem fusion dragged herself upwards from the waves, which leapt around her like feral animals, occasionally reaching the beach again. Her skin was turquoise, and her hair was a wild mane of white. Although she only had two arms, four legs could be seen thrashing against the water and four menacing eyes squinted angrily through locks of her hair. Her only visible gem, was a diamond-shaped Jasper on her nose, but its size and colouration made it clear that she was a fusion, not to mention what the Hybrids had heard of Malachite.

Malachite has been bound by multiple shackles, but after breaking free from the water, she cried, "ENOUGH!" and with a tensing of her arms, her shackles dissipated violently. She spoke to herself in a deep, booming voice. "We've spent enough time fighting each other... No matter what you think of me, we both hate those treacherous Crystal... Gems..."

Malachite trailed off as she noticed the children on the beach. She sneered angrily, and began wading towards them. Even through the deep water, the Hybrids could feel the beach trembling beneath their feet. Andrew stood unflinchingly as Malachite approached, and Amelia slowly positioned herself behind her brother's legs.

"Malachite, I presume!" Andrew shouted over the crashing waves, once the fusion was within earshot.

"You presume...? We were all right here when I began!" Malachite spat, threateningly and condescendingly. "Are you all wearing these ridiculous, fleshy disguises now?"

"Understandable mistake, but no." Andrew shouted back. He summoned his gauntlets. "Not that it matters though. We'll be tearing you two apart in their absence!"

Malachite gave a loud, cruel laugh. "Well if you're as weak as Rose Quartz has become, I don't think this will take long..."

Malachite reared back and threw her fist at the hybrids, obscuring the beach in an explosion of sand, with an ear-splitting collision. As the sand and the dust cleared, Penny and Amelia were astonished to see Andrew, fallen to one knee and trembling, his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth ground in concentration, as he held a turquoise fist, the size of a boulder, over his head.

"Amelia... RUN!" Andrew ordered.

Before Malachite withdrew her fist, Penny leapt over her brother and, with a flash of her gem and a swing of her quarterstaff, the hand was severed. Malachite gasped in alarm as her hand blinked away, and a new one formed, with a gleam of white light. With a frustrated grunt, Malachite stomped from the waves and punched at the sand, attempting to crush Andrew and Penny, while Amelia reluctantly followed her brother's instruction, and hastily backed away.

Malachite's lack of coordination made her slow, and after a moment of Andrew and Penny effortlessly avoiding her punches, she cried out in fury. With a wave of the monstrous fusion's arm, a snake-like mass of water shot from the ocean and devoured Andrew and Penny before they could evade. Bubbles shot from the hybrids' mouths as they desperately tried to swim for air, but remained trapped in the centre of the orb of water, as it floated in front of Malachite's sneering face.

Amelia, watching fearfully from the cliff, was almost ready to charge into action, and take on Malachite herself, when one of Andrew's gauntlets exploded from his aqueous prison, and detonated, upon striking Malachite between the eyes. Malachite cried out in surprise and pain, and stumbled backwards. The orb of water began to fall towards the beach, but before it did, Andrew grabbed his sister's hand and threw her towards their adversary.

Penny flew forwards, and landed on Malachite's face, hanging onto the edge of Jasper's gem. The diminutive hybrid shuddered as all four of Malachite's eyes focused on her and squinted angrily.

"Get off me, pipsqueak!"

Malachite threw her fist at Penny, but the young hybrid leapt acrobatically skywards, flipping forwards as Malachite clumsily punched herself in the face. Penny summoned her quarterstaff in the air and, as she fell, forced its blade between Malachite's form, and Jasper's gem. Malachite tried to grab Penny more gently, but as Penny pushed her weapon deeper, the fusion's form began to glow and flicker.

Just as it seemed the battle was won, Malachite dropped her hands to the beach, and threw her face at the sand. Penny screamed in alarm and let go of her quarterstaff, but once again, Malachite found her collision course with the beach, interrupted. After Penny painfully hit the sand, she saw Andrew standing over her, holding his hands against Malachite's face.

Malachite scrambled backwards into the ocean, before Andrew, too, made a grab at the gen on her face.

"I am DONE playing around!" She roared.

A tsunami towered above the ocean at Malachite's command, and leapt at the beach like a lion, swallowing the sand, and the hybrids, and crashing against the cliff, before the water cascaded back to the ocean, taking all three hybrids with it. Malachite stood with her back to the cliff and her palms pointing at the water, where a series of bubbles indicated where the hybrids were trapped.

"Let's see how much water pressure it takes to crush a defective Amethyst!" Malachite sneered maliciously.

The water churned around the hybrids, as they felt like they were plunging deeper and deeper, despite being trapped, barely a few feet beneath the surface. On the beach Malachite's wicked grin faltered slightly, and one of the hands she was using to control the water, relaxed.

"Don't get cold feet on me now..." She snarled at herself. "Think about everything they did to you..."

Malachite's internal conflict never got resolved though, for at that moment, an explosion of white light shone from the ocean, and the water that had been crushing and drowning the hybrids launched outwards and into the air, as though a bomb had struck. Before the waves crashed back inwards, a ten-foot-tall figure leapt towards the beach, with a spluttering and coughing Amelia held securely in their arms.

Despite the newcomer's inhuman height, they had the ordinary number of limbs and eyes, for a human. Their shoulder-length hair was a steely grey, like a new sports car, with Andrew's purple tips, and hung over one of their eyes. Penny's gem was just visible through their locks, as they blew in the breeze, and Andrew's in the hands, with which they held Amelia. They wore Andrew's torn jeans, and Penny's yellow dress, the latter somewhat distorted, like a frayed poncho.

"Amelia? Are you okay?" They asked, desperately.

Amelia spent a moment coughing up water, before looking up in wonder at her savior. "Penny...? Andrew...?"

The fusion grinned in triumph and relief. "More like... Sardonyx 2.0."

After the new Sardonyx carefully put Amelia down and made sure she could still stand, they rounded on a still stunned Malachite, and their expression darkened.

"You can come to our beach, throw a childish tantrum, and pick a fight with us... but NO ONE... HURTS... MY... SISTER!"

Andrew's gauntlets appeared in the air in front of Sardonyx, and they struck them each with a quarterstaff they summoned in each hand, causing the four weapons to fuse, with a flash of light, into two ornate, but menacing sledgehammers. As Sardonyx ran, Malachite drew mass after mass of water from the ocean, like a sinister nest of snakes.

Sardonyx leapt, ducked and struck with their hammers, evading Malachite's attacks as though the two of them had rehearsed for weeks. As Sardonyx reached Malachite's feet, jets erupted from the back of their hammers, and they were launched into the air, clear of Malachite's grasping hands, before descending, blindingly fast, hammers first, onto her head.

Malachite's form flickered violently, but she didn't destabilise. As Sardonyx cried angrily, and continued to strike downwards, as hard as they could, Malachite snatched them in another orb of water. Malachite drew back her other hand, and a series of enormous, icy daggers formed, each one ready to impale the hybrid fusion.

Malachite laughed a long, cruel laugh. "This has been a pathetic display, but your treachery and rebellion ends here!"

"NOOO!" Amelia screamed.

The youngest hybrid charged fearlessly across the beach, to Sardonyx's dismay. With a wave of her hand from her Gem, Amelia summoned an enormous bola, which span through the air like a blurred disk of purple, before ensnaring Malachite's wrist in several locks of her hair. Malachite cried in frustration, and her icy spears fell to the beach.

Holding their hammers out, Sardonyx span like a top, sending the water that held them flying in all directions. The second they hit the sand, the fusion flew upwards, with the aid of their hammers, directly at a still-distracted Malachite's head. With one, brutal swing, Jasper's gem was knocked clean off her face. With a blinding flash of light, the unconscious forms of Jasper and Lapis fell to the sand, and the water Malachite had wielded flowed back to the sea.

Sardonyx dispersed their weapons, fell down to one knee and hyperventilated for a moment, before violently separating. Penny and Andrew lay on their backs, smiling contentedly and drawing deep breaths.

Andrew firmly patted Penny's shoulder. "Good job, Penny..."

"You weren't so bad yourself..." Penny breathlessly replied.

"You guys were amazing!" Amelia called, as she ran across the beach.

The youngest hybrid jumped onto Andrew's chest, and pulled him into a hug, causing him to wince slightly, as his bruises were exacerbated.

"You're amazing!" Andrew enthusiastically replied. "You saved our lives!"

Andrew and Penny eventually climbed to their feet, and examined the still unconscious forms of Jasper and Lapis, occasionally twitching, or groaning something, sounding distressed.

"Now what do we do with these two?"


End file.
